We start off with President Moon Jae-in, who is on his state visit to Uzbekistan.
The President will travel to one of the country’s oldest cities,… once considered the "heart of the Silk Road".
With that,... he will wrap up his trip and head over to Kazakhstan on Sunday,... for the last leg of his three-nation tour of Central Asia.
Traveling with the president,.. our Shin Se-min has this report.
President Moon Jae-in... on the last full day of his visit in Uzbekistan... is set to visit the ancient city of Samarkand on Saturday.
His trip to the historic city... is a way of highlighting the two countries long relations... which dates back to the Silk Road era.
Being one of the oldest cities in Uzbekistan and Central Asia as a whole,... the city is known to have been frequented by merchants from nearby nations,... including ancient Korean dynasties.
The South Korean leaders’ visit to the site comes... amid the backdrop of an upgrade in diplomatic relations,… with the two sides,... agreeing to create a special strategic partnership.
And such closer ties,… largely built up on the Moon administrations’ New Northern Policy initiative.
“The New Northern Policy is our economy’s efforts for market diversification aimed at innovative growth,… and is also a strategy to expand to foreign markets in the areas of traditional, high-tech and service industries.”
The leaders of the two sides have promised to further their cooperation to high-value added industries like the health and medical sector, ICT and public administration.
Addressing the Uzbekistan’s parliamentarians Friday,… President Moon said the history-rich country, once at the center of the Great Silk Road... is entering a new era of development.
Saying that Uzbekistan’s development is linked to South Korea’s own,… Moon said Seoul will gladly share its experience of economic development with the Central Asian country.
President Moon’s trip here in Uzbekistan will wrap up on Sunday,... and he will head for Kazakhstan,... the last stop of his three-nation tour in Central Asia.
"The President’s visit to Samarkand,… one of the oldest inhabited cities in all of Central Asia,… is a way of highlighting the two countries’ bilateral cooperation for development projects and cultural heritage. Shin Se-min, Arirang News, Tashkent."