South Korea’s President Park Geun-Hye was treated to a full display of British pomp and ceremony as she began a three-day state visit to London on Tuesday, November 5. Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip accompanied Park in a horse-drawn carriage as they rode to Buckingham Palace, while troops welcomed her with a 41-gun salute at Green Park and the Tower of London. Wrapped up in a dark purple coat against the damp chill, Park smiled from the window of the ornate black and gold carriage as she sat beside the 87-year-old queen, who wore a pink coat and hat. Foreign Secretary Hague described South Korea as “a long-standing political friend and ally of the UK”. The visit comes amid a rise in tensions between South Korea and Japan, a key ally in efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program. In an interview with the BBC ahead of the trip, Park suggested it would be pointless to hold a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe given Tokyo’s refusal to apologize for abuses during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, a source of deep resentment in South Korea.
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