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President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook talk with Vietnamese national football team coach Park Hang-seo during a visit to the Vietnam Football Association in Hanoi, Thursday. Moon began his three-day Vietnam trip with the visit to Park. / Yonhap |
By Kim Rahn
HANOI ― President Moon Jae-in has encouraged Park Hang-seo, the Korean head coach of the Vietnamese national football team, and players of the team, Thursday, the first day of his three-day state visit to Vietnam.
He and first lady Kim Jung-sook visited the training field of the team in Hanoi.
Park, who started to lead the Vietnamese team in October, has gained popularity among people in Vietnam by leading the country to second place at the U23 Asian Cup in January. He is famous for his humble leadership, having meals and using the lodgings together with the players.
After the Asian Cup, the Vietnamese government granted Park the Third Class Labor Medal.
Mentioning about snow during the finals of the U23 Asian Cup, Moon told Park, "Vietnamese players may not have had much experience of games in snow. I think they could have won if it had not been the heavy snow."
"It is an honor for the President to visit me and the team," Park said, adding he would make more efforts to live up to his encouragement.
Moon and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam exchanged uniforms of each country's team. They and Kim kicked around balls together. Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu and some 10 Vietnamese national team players also attended the event.
Later in the day, the President also took part in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology (VKIST), a symbol of cooperation between the two countries in science and technology.
While the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Korea has become a successful model of developing science technology into commercialization, the VKIST project is aimed at implanting the model to Vietnam to cultivate talents in science and technology for the country's sustainable development.
"Through the beginning of the construction for the VKIST, Vietnam has taken one step closer to the dream of building an advanced, industrialized country. The experience of Korea, which achieved industrialization only in half a century, is helping Vietnam's dream come true," Moon said at the institute's construction site within the Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park.
"As Korea did for the last 25 years (since forming diplomatic ties with Vietnam), it will move toward a better future together with Vietnam. This site will become the cradle for exchanges and cooperation between talented scientists of the two countries."
The VKIST is an official development assistance (ODA) program in which Korea and Vietnam each pays $35 million. Korea will assist in construction of the institute buildings and provide apparatus and materials, training programs and management consulting.
Foreign Minister Kang, Science and ICT Minister You Young-min, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) President Lee Mi-kyung and Korean Ambassador to Vietnam Lee Hyuk attended the ceremony.
