S. Korean premier to visit Middle East over energy cooperation

SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's prime minister will travel to the Middle
East later this week to discuss energy cooperation and enhanced economic ties,
his office said Monday.

Resource-poor South Korea is heavily dependent on oil imports and has been
intensifying "energy diplomacy," a flagship policy of the market-oriented Lee
Myung-bak administration inaugurated in February.
Visiting Qatar, Kuwait and Turkey from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3, Prime Minister Han
Seung-soo will make a keynote speech at the Doha development conference,
expressing South Korea's willingness to expand official assistance to
underdeveloped countries. About 150 high-ranking officials, including King
Abdullah II of Jordan and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, will be attending the
meeting along with Han.
The South Korean prime minister will meet Qatari King Hamad Khalifa and Prime
Minister Hamad Jassim to discuss cooperation in the liquefied natural gas and
construction sectors.
Han also plans to meet U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is South Korean,
along with World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy and Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary-General Angel Gurria.
South Korea is the world's fifth-biggest oil importer. Annual purchases reach
around 900 million barrels with more than 80 percent of the energy provided by
the Middle East, according to state data.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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