LAHORE, Dec 20: South Korean Ambassador to Pakistan Yoon Jee-joon has announced a financial assistance of $6 million each for Pakistan and Afghanistan which he said will be delivered in near future.

The grant-in-aid to Pakistan will be given for its budgetary support and Afghan refugees settled here and to Afghanistan for its restructuring and refugees, he said while speaking at a reception on the occasion of the yearned gathering of the Pak-Korea Friendship Society here at a local hotel on Thursday night.

The ambassador said the grant-in-aid was a part of the multi-national economic aid to Pakistan and it would be enhanced in future to help Islamabad overcome its economic crisis. Korea had also given $10 million to Pakistan during the current year as a bilateral arrangement, he said.

“We are entering a new chapter after the Afghan war and have promised reconstruction of the war-torn country. We will be playing a very important role in the region,” he said.

The ambassador said for further aid to Pakistan a high-powered delegation would be meeting the Pakistan authorities in near future and added he would also visit the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry to seek opportunities for more trade relations between the two countries.

“Korea can be one of the most friendly country for Pakistan so far as its economic restructuring was concerned. But another aspect of the relations between the two countries is cultural relations. We will be sharing our cultural to further cement ties in this sphere,” he said.

The ambassador said Pakistan and Korea started trade relations in 1983 from zero but these relations developed considerably over the years. Korea was selling a number of electronic products in Pakistan, running urban transport and had built the motorway.

“Nevertheless, I am not satisfied with the trade relations with Pakistan so far its presence in Korea was concerned which was very low (less than one per cent). And the cultural relations too are not satisfactory,” he said.

The ambassador said he loved Pakistan because he had travelled its length and breadth. Korea’s journalists in Pakistan at present formed the fourth largest group and during an interview with one of them he regretted that despite having abundant natural resources Pakistan had suffered a lot during the past five decades.

Korea’s Honorary Consul-General Chaudhry Shujaat Husain said Pakistan itself had been a victim of terrorism and intrigue since long. The memory of the hijacking of an Indian airliner by its own intelligence agencies to serve as an excuse to ban overflights by Pakistani aircraft just before the Indian invasion of east Pakistan “is still fresh in our memories.”

He said in this context Pakistan feared a similar conspiracy behind the recent attack on the Indian parliament which appeared to be the opening move in a propaganda war aimed at Pakistan and President Pervez Musharraf’s offer of joint investigation was a clear evidence of Islamabad’s sincerity and innocence.

Chaudhry Shujaat mentioned the killing at a Bahawalpur Church to defame Pakistan and said Islamabad had been constantly trying to defuse tension with its hostile neighbour.

“We have behaved with responsibility and showed restraint in view of the international community’s priorities at this time and are sure that the world is aware of the motivations behind such conduct of India,” he said.

He appreciated South Korea’s participation in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan as well as the budgetary support to Pakistan. Korea had also applied for a membership in the Afghan Support Group of 16 countries to take part in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan, he said.

Punjab Law Minister Khalid Ranjha said the world countries extending support to Afghanistan should buy the available items like wheat flour and medicine from Pakistan to help it overcome its own economic crisis.

Earlier, talking to reporters the Korean ambassador said Pakistan and India must show restraint. He said now when Pakistan had got the golden opportunity to overcome its economic crisis it must show extra care while dealing with conditions in the region.

The reception was attended by a number of people including provincial minister Mehmood Ahmad Chaudhry, Shaheen Attiqur Rehman, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Liaquat Baloch, Humayun Akhtar Khan, LCCI president Dr Khalid Javed Chaudhry, Anti-Narcotics Force Punjab Director Brig Riazullah Chibb and Mian Wahid.