According to Yonhap News,

(LONDON = Yonhap News) By Chang Jae-soon

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed Wednesday to double trade and investment volume between the two countries by 2020, strengthen their partnership in nuclear energy projects and work closely together to develop future growth engines.

The two sides also signed a whopping 18 memorandums of understanding calling mainly for greater cooperation in financial oversight, project financing, nuclear power and renewable energy. Money involved in the project financing deals amounts to US$3 billion, officials said.

"The ROK and UK share an ambition to double the volume of bilateral trade by 2020 and double bilateral foreign direct investment stock by 2020," the two sides said in a joint statement issued after the summit. "The ROK and UK agreed to expand their partnership in the research and development of nuclear energy."

Trade and investment volumes between South Korea and Britain amounted to $11.26 billion and $22.8 billion last year, respectively. Wednesday's agreement calls for increasing the volumes to $20 billion and $45 billion, respectively, officials said.

A total of 11 MOUs were signed in the finance sector, including one calling for cooperation between financial regulators in sharing information and experiences. The deal is expected to help South Korea learn from Britain's advanced financial oversight system.

Other agreements include one between South Korea's Export-Import Bank and Britain's U.K. Export Finance to jointly provide up to $1 billion for the next three years in financing for projects involving companies of the two countries.

Two more similar deals were signed worth a combined $2 billion.

The two sides also signed seven MOUs in nuclear and renewable energy and infrastructure sectors. In particular, the deal on comprehensive nuclear power cooperation between Seoul's industry ministry and Britain's energy and climate change department is seen as a first step toward exporting atomic power plants to the European nation.

Britain plans to dismantle 15 of its 16 aging power-generating nuclear reactors by 2023, and plans to build 10 new ones by 2025, officials said. The two sides also signed an MOU on cooperation in nuclear power plant dismantlement, which officials said would help South Korea learn from the British technology.

The sides also adopted a separate statement on climate change. While pledging to jointly tackle the challenge, they said nuclear power "provides a safe, consistent and affordable source of energy" and vowed to "expand and strengthen cooperation" in nuclear power generation, safety and research on nuclear decommissioning and nuclear waste management.

On North Korea, the two leaders agreed that the verifiable denuclearization of North Korea is essential for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and beyond, and urged Pyongyang to abide by U.N. Security Council resolutions and its own commitments to forgo nuclear ambitions.

Britain also expressed support for Park's "Korean Peninsula trust process" and "Northeast Asia peace and cooperation initiative," according to the joint statement. The two visions call for promoting peace in a step-by-step manner beginning with small confidence-building projects.

Another point of the summit was cooperation in developing engines for future growth.

"The ROK and UK agreed to work closely in order to realize a common vision of developing the creative economy by combining science and technology with IT, and promoting convergence between different industries as well as between industry and culture," the joint statement said.

Pursuing new engines to power future growth has been a key theme of Park's presidency. Under the goal, she has championed what she calls the "creative economy" vision that calls for blending information and communications technology with culture and other realms to create novel industries and more jobs.

Park contends that the existing paradigm of economic growth has reached its limit, as it is unable to address high unemployment and widening economic inequalities. She says more creative ideas should be thought up to develop unheard-of industries that can serve as new growth engines.

During a visit to Paris earlier this week, Park and French President Francois Hollande also agreed to strengthen cooperation in high-tech industries to create new growth engines.

"Creative economy -- this is the new engine that I believe will power the next stage of our economic cooperation," Park said in a meeting with business leaders of the two countries. "Creative economy -- this is where we might find the answer to lifting the global economy out of its current doldrums."

Park also said that South Korea and Britain should continue to grow trade and partner strategically, saying Korea is strong in manufacturing, auto, steel, shipbuilding and semiconductors, while Britain is on the cutting edge in the basic sciences, finance, cultural content, design and the services sector.

"We could further expand our economic horizons, if we combine our strengths and enter third country markets together," she said. "As you say here in Britain 'Good company makes the road shorter.' Korea and the UK are friends of long standing. We are reliable economic partners."

Park made a similar appeal during a "creative economy" forum held at Imperial College London later Wednesday, saying the existing paradigm for economic growth reached its limit, and increasing "creativity," not "productivity," is a solution to the problem.

"We can generate great synergy if we produce smart contents by combining Britain's cultural contents and Korea's IT, and get Korea's 'Korean wave' to meet with Britain's media industry," she said. "Korean wave" refers to the international popularity of Korean pop culture.

Later in the day, Park was to hold a meeting with South Korean residents, attend a special screening for Korean movies and make a visit to the London financial district, known as the City of London.

London is the second leg of Park's three-nation European trip. After London, she plans to head to Belgium on Thursday for a two-day visit.

jschang@yna.co.kr

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