SEOUL: South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun left on Monday for a three-country tour of Africa, where securing steady energy supplies for his resource-poor country will be high on the agenda. Roh will visit Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria, in a first trip by a South Korean president to the region in 24 years, the presidential Blue House said in a statement. Roh has been keen to deepen ties with resource-rich countries to help secure a steady supply of raw materials and energy to fuel his country s export-driven economy. He has already visited the so-called BRIC economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China – and Central Asia on similar missions. South Korea, which has Asia s fourth-largest economy, has to import all of its crude oil needs, nearly 80 percent of it sourced from the volatile Middle East. South Korea, which bought only 0.8 percent of its crude oil imports from Nigeria last year, has been trying to boost oil imports from outside the Middle East in a bid to diversify supplies. It faces stiff competition securing global energy resources from neighboring economic heavyweights Japan and China. In Egypt, Roh s discussions with President Hosni Mubarak will include the political situation in the Middle East as well as international efforts aimed at prodding North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons programs, the statement said. Roh arrives in Nigeria, the largest oil-producing country in Africa, on Thursday and will meet President Olusegun Obasanjo for talks that will include energy cooperation. The visit comes at a time when Nigerian militants have threatened to halve the country s current oil output in their campaign to gain more autonomy for the southern delta region. Roh is also expected to discuss energy with leaders in Algeria, also a major oil producer and a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). He arrives there on Saturday. Roh, who returns home on March 14, will be the first South Korean president to visit Egypt and Algeria. Reuters
South Korean president heads to Africa
