Oking Charles III has welcomed South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and First Woman Kim Keon Hee to the U.Ok. to have a good time 140 years of diplomatic relations.
On Nov. 22, joined by The President and First Woman of the Republic of Korea, King Charles awarded BLACKPINK honorary MBEs. “The K-pop band have been awarded the honours in recognition of their position as Advocates for the COP26 Summit in Glasgow,” a publish from The Royal Household learn.
The evening earlier than, Charles, 75, rolled out the purple carpet to launch 62-year-old Yoons three-day go to to the U.Ok., welcoming as many as 170 worldwide visitors to Buckingham Palace for a state banquet. The monarch was joined by his spouse, Queen Camilla, son William, Prince of Wales, and daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his spouse Akshata Murty had been additionally in attendance.
The monarch took the chance to apply talking Korean in his opening deal with to welcome the couple.
Hallyu (Ok-pop tradition) took middle stage within the festivities, with girlband BLACKPINK among the many esteemed visitors. References to BTS and cult Netflix collection Squid Sport had been scattered all through Charles welcome speech.
“It’s most likely inventive creativity which has caused essentially the most dramatic shift in Koreas place within the British cultural panorama, the King instructed attendees. He later added, Our cultures share a exceptional potential to captivate imaginations internationally, reworking a so-called smooth energy right into a shared superpower.
Beneath are the highlights from Charles’ speech on the state banquet, which is a part of a wider journey to strengthen enterprise and commerce ties between the U.Ok. and South Korea.
Charles spoke in Korean
Addressing the President and First Woman at the beginning of his speech, Charles mentioned Yeong-gug-e osin geos-eul hwan-yeonghabnida, a greeting that interprets to: “Welcome to Britain.”
Charles final visited South Korea in 1992 with the late Princess Diana, however he remarked that rather a lot has modified since then, particularly within the expertise sector. His final assembly with Yoon passed off at Queen Elizabeth IIs funeral reception for Heads of State and high-profile visitors in Sept. On the time, Yoon was criticized for not visiting the monarch whereas her coffin was mendacity in state, however he attributed this to visitors congestion.
Charles referenced iconic Ok-pop figures and media
It can come as a shock to nobody that Charles speech acknowledged the rising reputation of Korean tradition across the globe. He touched on Hallyu! The Korean Wave, an exhibition that passed off in Londons Victoria and Albert Museum throughout 2022 and 2023, noting that the Korean language is among the many quickest rising language programs at British universities.
Korea has matched Danny Boyle with Bong Joon-ho, James Bond with Squid Sport, and the Beatles ‘Let It Be’ with BTS ‘Dynamite,’ he mentioned.
South Korean movie director Bong Joon-ho has achieved important acclaim over time, incomes three Academy Awards for the 2019 movie Parasite. The movie additionally received finest worldwide function, a prize that’s credited to South Korea.
Squid Sport, one other fashionable cultural export, was considered throughout 142 million households after its Netflix launch in Sept. 2021.
Charles additionally acknowledged world music sensation BTS, who had been lauded by Seouls tourism board in 2018 for attracting guests to South Korea.
Charles applauds BLACKPINKs environmentalism
Ok-pop woman band BLACKPINK had been amongst visitors on the banquet after they obtained a shout out by Charles. The monarch touched on the position South Korea is enjoying within the world battle towards environmental harm. He famous that the Republic has a agency dedication to renewable and carbon-free applied sciences, in line with U.Ok. industrial and coverage experience.
It’s particularly inspiring to see Koreas youthful technology embrace the trigger, Charles mentioned. I applaud Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Ros, higher identified collectively as BLACKPINK, for his or her position in bringing the message of environmental sustainability to a world viewers as Ambassadors for the U.Ok.s Presidency of COP 26, and later as advocates for the U.N. Sustainable Growth Targets.
He added that he admired the teams potential to prioritize local weather motion alongside being world superstars. In July, BLACKPINK turned the primary Korean band to headline a British music competition after they carried out at BST Hyde Park, an achievement they replicated at Coachella, after they had been the primary Asian and all-female band to headline.
Charles made a Gangnam Model Joke
Reaching again to 2012, Charles joked concerning the track “Gangnam Model” by Psy, which topped the music charts in additional than 30 international locations worldwide. Sadly, after I was in Seoul all these years in the past, I’m not positive I developed a lot of what could be known as the Gangnam Model! he mentioned, reflecting on his final go to.
A tribute to poet Yun Dong-ju was made
Charles famous that his late mom was struck by the heat and great thing about South Korea throughout her 1999 go to. Koreas preservation of its sense of self, amid bewildering change, was maybe what the poet Yun Dong-ju, who so tragically died in captivity on the very eve of Koreas liberation, anticipated when he wrote: Whereas the wind retains blowing, My ft stand upon a rock. Whereas the river retains flowing, My ft stand upon a hill.
The quote hails from The Wind Blows, by certainly one of Koreas most beloved poets who was identified for his lyric poetry and resistance poems. Yuns writings mirrored on society and finally led to imprisonment on expenses of independence motion. He died in jail aged 27, forsaking a group of 100 poems.
