Vietnam welcomes South Korean president with 21-gun salute

The anthems of the two nations played in the background.

The two presidents reviewed a guard of honor before entering the Presidential Palace to hold talks and address the media.

President Vo Van Thuong (L) and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on the morning of June 23, 2023 Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy

Yoon had arrived in Hanoi Thursday with his wife for a state visit at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart.

It is the first visit to Vietnam for Yoon, who took office in May, and his first to a Southeast Asian nation.

Speaking at a meeting with the South Korean community living in Vietnam on Thursday afternoon, he described Vietnam as South Korea’s key partner in building a free, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region, and his visit would be the starting point for the next 30 years of bilateral relations.

Soldiers shoot 21 shots from cannons to welcome President Yoon Suk-yeol in Hanoi, June 23, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy

Vietnam and Korea established diplomatic relations in 1992.

The relationship was upgraded to a “strategic cooperative partnership” in October 2009 and a “comprehensive strategic partnership” last December.

South Korea is one of Vietnam’s most important partners, ranking first in terms of investment, second in official development aid and third in trade.

Bilateral trade last year was worth US$87 billion, a 11.4% rise from 2021.

As of April 2023 Korea had invested nearly $82 billion in more than 9,500 projects in Vietnam.

In recent years it has been Vietnam’s second largest tourism market, and there are more than 1,000 direct flights between the two nations a month. In 2019, the year before Covid began, 4.2 million South Koreans visited Vietnam.

Last year, with top nation China still closed, South Korea sent the highest number of visitors.

South Korea is also the second most popular destination for Vietnamese guest workers after Japan, while Vietnam is its second largest source of labor after China.