When Seoul Mayor Park Wonsoon was in town yesterday he signed a “friendship city” agreement with London Mayor Sadiq Khan at City Hall. According to Yonhap, the agreement is “aimed at strengthening cooperation in nine sectors including economic democratization, improved response to climate change and digital renovation.”
Earlier in the day Mayor Park was at Chatham House talking on the subject of South Korea’s Citizen Democracy. Linking with some of the areas covered by the agreement, Mayor Park had also talked about Seoul’s initiatives to reduce energy consumption and the city’s support for tech start-ups.
The first phase of the friendship city relationship was signed between Park Wonsoon and the then Mayor Boris Johnson in December 2015. Park is in his second term as Mayor.
One of the next events on the London-Seoul friendship calendar will be the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in September, at which London has been invited to be guest city.