Crown Prince Alexander II and crown princess Katherine of Serbia will visit Korea for six days starting Tuesday, Korea Foundation said Monday. It will be their first visit to Korea.
Alexander and Katherine have regarded the economic growth model of Korea as a good example for war-torn Serbia, the foundation said.
During their stay in Korea, they are scheduled to visit institutions and facilities related to Korean economic development, tour the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom and demilitarized zone, and visit Gyeongbokgung, a royal palace in northern Seoul.
Crown Prince Alexander, a descendant of the Karadjordje dynasty of the former Yugoslavia kingdom, was born in Britain in 1945. He was baptized in Westminster Abbey with godparents King George VI and Princess Elizabeth, who is now the Queen Elizabeth II.
His father, King Peter II, left Yugoslavia for Athens in April 1941 after Germany occupied the country, but after the war, he was illegally prevented from returning to his country by the communist regime, which had seized power in Belgrade.
Ending his exile in Greece, Israel, Egypt and Britain in 1991, Alexander traveled to Belgrade where he was warmly welcomed, and he began to support dissidents who stood up against the Slobodan Milosevic dictatorship. In 2000, when Milosevic was ousted, he and his family returned home permanently.
He and his family have been living in the Royal Palace in Belgrade since July 2001.
By Chun Sung-woo (
swchun@heraldcorp.com)
