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Park holds talks with Czech prime minister

December 3, 2015

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, left, shakes hands with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka Thursday for talks on how to boost substantial cooperation. (Yonhap)

PRAGUE (Yonhap) — President Park Geun-hye met with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka on Thursday for talks on how to boost substantial cooperation in a wide-range of areas.

The two leaders are set to adopt an action plan meant to implement a bilateral strategic partnership signed earlier this year.

The action plan calls for, among other things, political dialogue, consultations on cybersecurity as well as cooperation in nuclear energy.

It marked the second time that Park has met with Sobotka this year. In February, Sobotka visited Seoul and met with Park. At that time, the two leaders upgraded bilateral relations to a strategic partnership to deepen cooperation in political, economic and other issues.

No details of the meeting were immediately available.

Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea’s presidential office, said ahead of the meeting that Park could push again to try to export South Korea’s nuclear reactors to the Czech Republic.

In May, the Czech Republic announced its plan to build two nuclear reactors expected to be worth over 10 trillion won, or about $8.6 billion, and is scheduled to select a successful bidder in 2019.

The central European country currently relies on six nuclear reactors to meet 35 percent of its energy needs.

On Wednesday, Park and her Czech counterpart Milos Zeman held a summit before observing the signing of a memorandum of understanding calling for cooperation in building nuclear reactors.

Park is also expected to ask Sobotka to consider buying South Korea’s Surion helicopter for a Czech acquisition project of multi-purpose attack helicopters, according to Cheong Wa Dae.