Korea: A Global Partnership for a Changing World

For His Excellency Mr Kim Heung-chong, taking up his post as Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United Kingdom marks a return to a country with which he has a longstanding connection.

He arrived in London on 6 May, but his relationship with Britain stretches back decades. He spent periods at Oxford University in the 1990s and 2000s for study and research, experiences that broadened his horizons and forged friendships that have endured throughout a career spanning academia, economics, public policy and government.

His return comes at a consequential moment for both countries. Korea and the UK now describe their relationship as a Global Strategic Partnership, encompassing foreign and security policy, defence, trade and investment, clean energy, science and advanced technology.

In his first months in London, Ambassador Kim has immersed himself in that breadth: from Royal engagements and political and economic cooperation to meetings with the Korean community and building networks across industry, defence, culture, science and technology.

Diplomacy, he suggests, is both broad in scope and intensely practical. “What I find particularly fascinating about diplomacy is the opportunity to make the fullest possible use of the diplomatic assets available to our Embassy to foster closer cooperation between Korea and the UK.”

From economics to diplomacy

Ambassador Kim’s path to diplomacy was shaped in part by the extraordinary transformation of modern Korea.

Born in the 1960s, he grew up in Seoul when the country was still at an early stage of economic development and poverty remained widespread. By his university years in the 1980s, Republic of Korea was experiencing remarkable economic growth while simultaneously undergoing a turbulent struggle for democracy.

Both experiences left their mark.

“Korea’s extraordinarily rapid economic development, together with its even more remarkable achievement of democratisation within such a short period of time, is deeply imprinted on the consciousness of my generation,” he says.

Economics initially attracted him not primarily as an instrument for development, but as a means of making sense of a complex society. He was drawn, he explains, to the discipline’s combination of analytical rigour and creativity, and admits that diplomacy, at that stage, “was hardly on my mind.”

That changed as his work in international economics brought him into close contact with Korea’s then Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It also led him towards an understanding that has become increasingly central to international policy. “Even before economic security became a major issue, I came to understand how inseparable economics and security are.”

Questions of trade led naturally to questions about geopolitics, foreign policy and Korea’s strategic position. That intellectual progression eventually brought him to where he is today, “working at the forefront of diplomacy.”

A partnership built for new challenges

The historical foundations of Korea-UK relations run deep. Formal ties date to the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation of 1883. During the Korean War, the UK was the second-largest contributor of troops after the United States, deploying more than 80,000 personnel.

For Ambassador Kim, that history is not an abstract diplomatic inheritance. “That shared history and sacrifice are still remembered through Korean War memorials in both countries.”

Since arriving in Britain, he has laid wreaths at these memorials beside the Thames, in York and in Scotland. A visit to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, where he spoke with Korean War veterans, proved particularly affecting. “What surprised me most was that they thanked me when I felt that it was I who should be thanking them,” he recalls. “I was momentarily lost for words and deeply touched.”

That shared history now underpins a partnership increasingly focused on the strategic industries of the future.

One of the Ambassador’s immediate priorities is to reinvigorate high-level exchanges and identify areas where cooperation can produce tangible results. He singles out artificial intelligence, clean energy and defence as sectors where the strengths of the two countries are particularly complementary.

Britain’s research and development capabilities in AI, he argues, offer opportunities for collaboration as Korea pursues an AI-driven transformation of its manufacturing sector. Offshore wind presents another area of considerable potential, with Ambassador Kim keen to support Korean equipment suppliers seeking opportunities in the British market.

Defence is similarly prominent. With major British companies operating in the sector and the UK seeking to connect defence investment with economic growth, the Ambassador sees scope for closer industrial cooperation.

Trade remains an important foundation. Negotiations on an upgraded Korea-UK Free Trade Agreement have been concluded, with both sides looking towards its formal signing and the prospect of further bilateral trade and investment.

There is also an important multilateral dimension ahead. The UK is due to hold the G20 Presidency in 2027, followed by Korea in 2028 — successive presidencies that Ambassador Kim sees as an opportunity to establish continuity and advance shared priorities.

Security in an interconnected world

For Korea, however, the changing international environment is inseparable from the security challenges closer to home.

Ambassador Kim describes the current environment surrounding the Korean Peninsula as “far from favourable,” pointing to the limited progress in inter-Korean dialogue and exchanges in recent years and increased military tensions and instability.

Yet he stresses that “the Korean government remains committed to de-escalating tensions and pursuing peaceful coexistence on the Peninsula.”

His analysis extends well beyond Northeast Asia. One of the defining characteristics of the present geopolitical landscape, he argues, is the degree to which formerly regional security questions have become interconnected. “Security and peace in Northeast Asia are now closely connected to developments in Europe, the Middle East and other parts of the world. Regional challenges are increasingly global in their implications. In that sense, we are all in the same boat.”

It is a perspective that places partnerships at the heart of Korea’s foreign policy. Ambassador Kim describes the UK as one of Korea’s closest partners and expresses appreciation for British and wider international support for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

At the same time, he emphasises that Korea intends to increase its own contribution to global peace and stability.

That ambition reflects the extraordinary change in the country’s international position within a matter of generations. Korea, he notes, has “transformed from aid recipient to donor, from military rule to democracy, from a limited technological base to leadership in advanced technologies — and from importing culture into a cultural powerhouse exporting K-culture to the world.”

The diplomatic power of K-culture

Few demonstrations of Korea’s global transformation are as visible as the rise of K-culture. K-pop and Korean television and film may be its most recognisable exports, but Ambassador Kim points to a cultural ecosystem now encompassing food, beauty and fashion.

He witnessed its reach firsthand at a BTS concert in London in July, where the enthusiasm of the group’s global ARMY fan community gave him “a vivid sense of just how much interest and affection there is for Korean culture here in the UK.”

For a diplomat, that affection represents something more than cultural success. It creates a reservoir of familiarity and interest upon which deeper relationships can be built. “When a country’s culture becomes better known, it deepens mutual understanding. That understanding, in turn, creates greater interest in and affinity for the country itself.” He sees the effects in the Embassy’s engagement with British diplomats, businesses, young people and members of the wider public who already feel a connection to Korea.

It is a potent form of soft power — although Ambassador Kim’s explanation of Korean cultural creativity is more introspective. Korea’s turbulent 20th-century experience, he suggests, left a profound imprint on the national consciousness: aspirations, dynamism and a sense of loss became part of the creative foundations from which contemporary Korean culture emerged.

Listening to the landscape

Away from diplomacy, Ambassador Kim’s return to Britain has also allowed him to indulge a longstanding enthusiasm for walking. His recommendations range across the country — the cliffs of the Seven Sisters, the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Highlands, the national parks of northern England, the coast of Wales and the historic landscape surrounding Lindisfarne.

But his walking philosophy perhaps offers the more revealing description of how he approaches his new surroundings — and, in some respects, diplomacy itself. “For me, walking is not simply a way of seeing a place, but a way of listening to its landscape, feeling its history, and discovering the quiet beauty that lies beyond the familiar.”

For an Ambassador tasked with developing a relationship that stretches back more than 140 years while identifying new possibilities in AI, defence, energy, trade and global governance, looking beyond the familiar may prove a useful instinct indeed.