이란 순방 특보 인트로: 성사되기까지, 양국 관계 및 기대 효과 If you are just joining us it is just before 11am on a Sunday morning here in Seoul. You are tuned into our coverage of President Park Geun-hye's state visit to Iran. The Korean leader and her delegation are about to board the plane for the long flight west to the Islamic Republic. Political watchers are paying keen interest to this visit -- for a start it is the first trip by a South Korean leader to Iran in 54 years, when the two countries established economic ties. There is hope the visit can be one of the most productive state-visits in many ways, both on the economic and diplomatic front. Let's take a look at some live video from Seoul Air Base -- located just outside the southeast of the capital. We can see Korea's Air Force One, the plane that will be carrying President Park and the delegation of some of Korea's most powerful business chiefs,... who themselves will be eager to make a good impression and seal some lucrative deals over the next few days. Our correspondent Song Ji-sun is among those traveling with the president and we'll be connecting with her throughout the trip,.. including on Monday afternoon, Korea time, when Presidents Park and Rouhani hold a live press conference. We'll be bringing you that live on Arirang News. Check the website arirang-dot-com for the details on that. President Park's visit comes just a few months after the international sanctions were lifted on Iran in January... following the deal reached in July last year. Since then, Seoul has sharply increased its oil imports from Iran. It is an important relationship. South Korea is the world's fifth largest oil importer while Iran has the fourth largest oil reserves so it is clearly a relationship that can benefit both sides in that regard. As Ji-sun touched up in her report,... there are high expectations Korean firms will be selected to join in of some of Iran's major infrastructure projects given the experience, expertise and know-how Korean firms have in this areas as evidenced in other parts of the Middle East. South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se visited Tehran in November last year... and multiple working-level visits were made to prepare agreements on economic cooperation earlier this year, from Seoul's trade, finance ministries and agencies. To ensure Korea does not miss out the great business opportunities in Iran -- a country with a lot of natural resources and a population of 80 million hard-working and educated people -- President Park wanted to make this trip as quickly as possible. There have been a steady flow of world leaders flying to Iran over the past few months. In fact,... the first foreign president to visit Tehran after international sanctions were lifted in January,.. was Chinese President Xi Jinping. He wasted no time going there. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is also reportedly planning a trip in August. President Park is traveling with the biggest-ever business delegation to accompany her overseas trip... even more than the groups she has taken to China and the U.S. before. That can perhaps give you an idea about how seriously South Korea is taking this particular trip,... seeing it as a huge and virtually untapped market that could present some fantastic opportunities to make money and ultimately create conditions for companies to hire more people, especially young graduates who are having a tough time in the job market at the moment. That's a total of 236 businessmen and women, representing not only South Korea's conglomerates like Samsung, KT, Hyundai but also smaller companies and startups are boarding the president's plane seeking to take greater part in Iran's plentiful business opportunities. We are expecting some massive MOUs and deals to be sealed between the two leaders, which will also make it easier for Korean firms to enter the Iranian market in the years ahead. Iran is vying to rebuild its economy and there's plenty of work to be done on its infrastructure from railway, water management, roads and more. Those are also the areas Korean government is trying to garner greater cooperation from Tehran. Expectations are high, with watchers saying Korea and Iran could seal a slew of deals worth up to 17 billion U.S. dollars over the next few days. Seoul is also keen to boost oil supplies from Iran which used to account for ten percent of its oil imports before the sanctions on Iran came into effect. Visit ‘Arirang News’ Official Pages Facebook(NEWS): http://www.facebook.com/newsarirang Homepage: http://www.arirang.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/arirangtv Twitter: http://twitter.com/arirangworld Instagram: http://instagram.com/arirangworld

• published: 01 May 2016
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