According to Yonhap News,

(OTTAWA=Yonhap News) South Korea and Canada signed a free trade agreement on Monday, vowing to significantly boost their relations as "strategic partners."

The two sides described the deal as “an historic initiative that will strengthen our trade and investment ties across the Pacific,”according to the text of a joint declaration issued following a summit between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Park and Harper reaffirmed their commitment to quickly implementing the “ambitious, state-of-the-art agreement.”

The bilateral FTA, concluded in March after nearly nine years of tough negotiations, needs to be ratified by the respective legislatures of Seoul and Ottawa before taking effect.

South Korea is the first Asian country to sign a free trade deal with Canada. Two-way trade amounted to nearly US$10 billion in 2013.

Park and Harper also said bilateral cooperation in such fields as energy and research and development in the Arctic could benefit the two countries after their officials inked a series of memorandums of understanding on science and technology.

Canada serves as chair of the Arctic Council, which sets the rules for development of the polar region, believed to have large untapped reserves of oil and gas.

Last year, South Korea gained permanent observer status at the Arctic Council.

Park and Harper also urged North Korea to abandon its missile and nuclear weapons programs as they voiced concerns on North Korea's dismal human rights record.

Despite international pressure, North Korea has vowed to develop its economy and nuclear arsenal in tandem, viewing its nuclear programs as a powerful deterrent against what it claims is Washington's hostile policy.

Earlier this year, North Korea threatened to carry out a "new form" of nuclear testing in response to a U.N. condemnation of its ballistic missile launches.

North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, drawing international condemnation and U.N. sanctions.

Also Monday, Park planted a tree on the grounds of the Canadian governor general's official residence and laid a wreath at a war monument in Ottawa as she concluded her three-day state visit to Canada on a trip that will also take her to New York for the U.N. General Assembly.

In New York, Park is set to attend a banquet hosted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, later in the day, according to Park's office.

Park plans to attend the U.N. climate summit meant to galvanize action on cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases that scientists blame for global warming.

Park also plans to address the General Assembly on Wednesday with a call for peace on the divided Korean Peninsula and in the Asian region.

Meanwhile, a rare high-level meeting on North Korea's human rights issue is also set to take place on the sidelines of the General Assembly in an apparent attempt to drum up international support for a U.N. resolution on the North's human rights record.

High-profile participants include U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, the new U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

North Korea's human rights record has drawn greater international attention since the U.N. Commission of Inquiry issued a report in February after a year-long probe, saying that North Korean leaders are responsible for "widespread, systematic and gross" violations of human rights.

entropy@yna.co.kr

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