Thousands cheer Mr Muldoon on arrival in Seoul

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34131, 19 April 1976, Page 1

Thousands cheer Mr Muldoon on arrival in Seoul

(From DEREK ROD ND, N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent) SEOUL, April 18. Thousands of flag-waving Koreans welcomed the New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) when he arrived in Seoul this evening from Paris for a five-day visit pledging a “deep sense of solidaritv** with South Korea.

Mr Muldoon, obviously delighted with the reception, beamed as his 21-car motorcade passed through crowds, five deep in parts, lining the 21-kilometre route from Kimpo Airport to his hotel in downtown Seoul.

An hour earlier, police had cleared traffic off the road from the airport and handed out thousands of New Zealand and Korean flags to children and Sundayafternoon strollers. Hundreds of armed police and plainclothes security men lined the route. The South Korean Prime Minister (Choi Kyu Hah) welcomed Mr Muldoon as “a distinguished statesman of one of our closest allies.” “The support and cooperation New Zealand has given us at the United Nations and other international conferences have indeliblv remained in the minds of all Korean people,” Mr Choi said, in his speech at the airport ceremony. Recalling New Zealand’s role in the Korean War. Mr Choi said: "When the North Korean Communists launched unprovoked aggression against the Republic of Korea 26 years ago. New Zealand made het noble sacrifices along with us to repel the aggression and defend the freedom of this country. “Consolidated thus in blood, the strong ties of friendship between our two countries have been steadily strengthened in all fields, based on mutual trust and firm commitment to the common cause of peace and freedom,” Mr Choi said. Mr Muldoon, whose Korean

Airlines jet was an hour late after being delayed in Paris for an engine cowling to he replaced, was greeted with a 19-gun salute and inspected a guard of honour from the armed forces, standing in an open limousine with Mr Choi. A scarlet-jacketed military band broke into the Maori melodv “Pokarekareana” as a Korean boy and girl in red sailor suits presented bouquets of roses to Mr Muldoon and Mrs Muldoon. Members of the diplomatic corps lined up to meet Mr Muldoon at the airport included the former Malaysian High Commissioner to New Zealand, Mr Jack de Silva, now his country’s Ambassador to Korea. The South Koreans have imposed tight security for Mr Muldoon’s visit, and armed police ringed the Chosun Hotel where he is staving and cleared all traffic from the front of it hours before he arrived. Security search A big team of security men moved on to the NewZealand party’s floor earlier today and carefully searched all the rooms. Mr and Mrs Muldoon are staying in the suite occupied by President Ford when he was here. Mr Muldoon has no official engagement tomorrow until a dinner hosted by Mr Choi in the evening. On Tuesday, he wall lay wreaths on the Tombs of the Unknown Soldier and the late Madame Park Chung Hee, as-

sassinated in 1974, before calling on Mr Choi and lunching with the Speaker of the National Assembly (Chung Il Kwon). Later, he will have talks with President Park Chung Hee and attend a dinner given by the President. On Wednesday, Mr Muldoon will receive an honorary doctorate in economics from Seoul National University and visit a South Korean Army forward observation post. Mr Muldoon is also reported to be interested in visiting Panmunjon, where North Korea and South Korea meet in the demilitarised zone separating the divided country. The zone is only 40 kilometres away from "the South Korean capital, a fact which the Koreans constantly impress on visitors to Seoul. Mr Muldoon, who was last in Seoul as Minister of Finance in 1970, and is the first New Zealand Prime Minister to visit Seoul since Sir Keith Holyoake’s visit in 1968. said that he had long admired South Korea for “the courageous stand by which it has maintained its integrity. “The Republic of Korea has my admiration also for the vigorous, even astonishing, economic development which has taken place, notwithstanding the ever-present threat from the North and the need for the people of the Republic of Korea to divert so much of their resources into their own defence,” he said.