During his two-day visit to Seoul, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó had talks about the sanctions proposed by the European Union against North Korea and South Korean investments coming to Hungary.
Upon rendering an account of his visit, the Minister told the Hungarian news agency MTI on Friday: in addition to the Islamic State, the greatest security threat is posed to the world today „if the North Korean dictator’s plans relating to the development of nuclear weapons prove to be successful”. The situation is that „North Korea is led by a mad communist dictator who is a threat to the entire world” because he does everything in his power to develop nuclear weapons, and this year alone, twenty-four missile tests have been carried out in the country”, Mr Szijjártó said.
He stressed: Hungary is committed to ensuring that the international community prevents North Korea at any cost from producing nuclear weapons. Hungary will therefore initiate that the European Union should introduce new sanctions against North Korea, in addition to the UN sanctions currently in place, he pointed out.
Mr Szijjártó said: Hungary will propose that further sectors should come under EU investment prohibition, and European businesses should be prohibited from making investments in the case of metallurgy and the aircraft industry as well in North Korea. The Member States and businesses in the European Union should likewise be prohibited from providing services for North Korea or businesses in North Korea in connection with computer technology, mining and the chemical industry, and the entire political leadership of the country should be placed on a travel ban and assets freeze list. He added: Hungary will additionally initiate further restrictions on North Korea’s coal exports as these account for one third of the country’s foreign currency revenues.
The Foreign Minister takes the view that, with these four measures, North Korea could be prevented from gaining access to the funds and foreign currency revenues which currently enable it to develop nuclear weapons within a relatively short time. It is now clear that this cannot be prevented „with resolutions, and all sorts of nice words”, and there is a need for tough sanctions which are much more stringent than those in place at present and are more wide-ranging than those approved by the UN, he said.
He highlighted: South Korea expressed its appreciation on account of this position of Hungary.
Mr Szijjártó had talks in Seoul with the Foreign Minister and the executives of several large corporations. Regarding economic and trade relations, he said: „the automotive industry constitutes the backbone of the Hungarian industry” which has now reached a very important watershed as from now on digitisation and electromobility will determine the world’s automotive industry. It is therefore important whether the businesses which play a leading role in this era will choose Hungary as the site for their developments, he said.
The Minister reiterated: Samsung SDI decided to bring the production of the batteries of electric cars to Hungary, and to create 600 jobs in Göd as part of a project worth HUF 90 billion. They now agreed that two other companies which will be Samsung SDI’s suppliers will also bring their production to Hungary. This means the settlement in Hungary of two new suppliers, while the businesses forming part of the Samsung Group which are already here will increase their operations in Hungary, and as a result 500 new jobs will come into being, he explained. He added: this ensures that Hungary may remain the European flagship of the sector in the new era of the automotive industry as well.
Mr Szijjártó said: the parties wish to intensify technological cooperation between the two countries in order to also enhance investment relations, technological cooperation and the volume of trade. Eximbank opened a credit facility worth USD 720 million because South Korean businesses are quite evidently increasingly more interested in the Hungarian economy, given the fact that wherever a major South Korean corporation invests, it boost interest in the entire economic sector, he said.
The Foreign Minister told MTI: this year 125 thousand tourists have come to Hungary from South Korea which represents a 13 per cent increase, and he therefore had talks with two airlines regarding the launch of direct air services. This summer Asiana Airlines operated a direct flight between Seoul and Budapest, and there is a good chance that this may be the case next summer as well, he remarked.
He further reported that they also agreed on launching joint military technological research and development programmes, as well as on closer cooperation in this field between the Korean national defence university and the National Public Service University. As of next September, Korean students will attend the staff courses of the Defence Forces, he added.
Mr Szijjártó said: a decision has been adopted, based on which Hungary will open a cultural institute in Seoul, and the cultural attaché who has been tasked with the preparations has already arrived at the Embassy in Seoul.