ANKARA - Acting Parliament Speaker Nevzat Pakdil said on Wednesday that Turkey attached importance to maintenance of peace and stability in the peninsula of Korea and added, ''we wish that tension that has occurred due to nuclear tests of North Korea will end.''
South Korean Deputy Parliament Speaker Boo-Young Cho visited Acting Parliament Speaker Pakdil.
Pakdil said that friendship that went back to Korean War helped rapprochement between the two nations.
Support that South Koreans extended to Turkish national football team in 2002 World Cup was the indicator of friendship between the two countries, Pakdil noted.
Pakdil stated that Turkey attributed importance to relations with South Korea, which had an important contribution to providing peace and stability in the Far East.
Economic and commercial relations between the two countries did not reflect the real potential, Pakdil said.
Requesting that concerted efforts should be exerted to ensure commercial balances, Pakdil said that the parliament attached importance to promotion of relations with South Korean parliament.
Boo-Young Cho recalled that Turkish brigade joined the Korean War in 1950 and said that Korean people had not forgotten self-sacrifice of Turkish soldiers.
Noting that Korean people were grateful to Turkish people because of those days, Young Cho said that they would never forget that.
Young Cho stated that bilateral relations were improving in every field.
Noting that 30 thousand South Korean citizens visited Turkey last year, Young Cho said that number would increase.
(BRC-AÖ) 09.07.2003