Reflections of a former envoy to Korea

I  WAS the Philippine Ambassador to the Republic of Korea from May 1999 until my retirement from the government service in June 2003.  My wife Angie and I recently returned to Seoul with our daughter Jhoanna, who is assigned to the Philippine Embassy in the Korean capital to handle economic and UN matters.  We wanted to help her settle down and for the personal reason that Angie and I we wanted to see Korea again after eleven years.

Visiting a country again after a long lapse may be likened to a journey of rediscovery.  One has to look for new developments.  It was most notable that Korea’s economic ascendancy has remained on course.  A US credit rating agency has assessed that ROK is poised to join the rank of the advanced economies by 2018.