Members of the Republic of Korea Air Force who arrived on the evening of Oct. 14 at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do Province, take a group photo to mark their evacuation operation from Israel in front of their multi-role tanker transport plane KC-330. Earlier that day, the aircraft flew out of the violence-ravaged country with 220 passengers: 163 Koreans, 51 Japanese and six Singaporeans. (Han Jae-ho of Korea Defense Daily)
Japan has thanked the Korean government for evacuating Japanese nationals from Israel on a military transport aircraft.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul said Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin on the morning of Oct. 15 from 11 a.m. spoke on the phone for 20 minutes with Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa, who thanked Seoul for flying out 51 Japanese nationals and their families from the violence-stricken Mideast country.
Both diplomats discussed cooperation in emergency support for bringing home their citizens from Israel amid the latter's conflict with the armed Palestinian faction Hamas.
Stressing close bilateral cooperation, Minister Kamikawa said, "We will fully cooperate if a similar situation erupts again."
The day before, the Korean military transport plane deployed by the government arrived at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do Province, with 220 evacuees: 163 Koreans, 51 Japanese and six Singaporeans. On humanitarian grounds, Seoul provided cooperation in the getting foreign nationals out of Israel by offering spare seats on the plane to them.
hjkoh@korea.kr
