France's first Korean-born minister in landmark Seoul visit

  French minister Fleur Pellerin begins a highly symbolic trip this weekend to South Korea, the land of her birth, where she is a celebrity due to her roots and a rags-to-riches story.

   Pellerin, the junior minister for small and medium enterprises, innovation, and the digital economy, is due to meet with South Korea's President Park
Geun-Hye, its prime minister and top officials from leading chaebols, or business conglomerates, such as Samsung and Hyundai.

   Born in 1973 in Seoul and abandoned, Pellerin was adopted by a French couple six months later from an orphanage and came to France. She has never been back to her homeland.

   Pellerin's trip to South Korea and Japan begins on Saturday and ends on Friday.

   Previously little known in France, the woman born as Kim Jong-Sook made waves in South Korea when she was appointed minister in the government of Socialist President Francois Hollande.

   The Korean media cited it as an example of French tolerance, saying Seoul could draw an example of that amid growing controversy over discrimination against immigrants in the Asian nation.

   While more than 150,000 South Korean children have been adopted by foreign parents since the Korean War, only one, Pellerin, has risen to the top ranks of government.

   Raised in a middle-class environment, she was a successful student who was educated at elite institutions including the famed Sciences Po university in Paris and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), which serve as finishing schools for the country's ruling class.

   Pellerin is a key figure in Hollande's quest to ensure that French rules apply to global internet companies such as Google operating in the country.

   "If we don't act in the next few years it will be too late" to enforce those rules, Pellerin has said.

   She is leading a high-profile business team to the two Asian countries including Nicolas Dufourcq, the head of France's public investment bank, and

David Appia, the chief of the French agency in charge of international investments.

   Pellerin does not speak Korean but knows Japanese, having lived in the country for a year.

 (AFP)

<관련 한글 기사>

플뢰르 펠르랭(Fleur Pellerin) 프랑스 중소기업혁신디지털경제 장관이 23일부터 5일 일정으로 방한한다.

1973년 서울에서 태어난 펠르랭 장관은 바로 프랑스로 입양된 한국계 장관이다. 이번 방문으로 입양 후 처음 고국 땅을 밟는 것.

펠르랭 장관은 25일 한불상공회의소(FKCCI)가 주관하는 오찬에 참석, 프랑스 및 한국 기업 대표들을 만나고 중소기업중앙회와 맺는 비즈니스파트너십 서명식에 참석한다. 주한 프랑스대사관 경제상무관실, 프랑스 무역진흥공사 유비프랑스(Ubifrance)와 서울산업통상진흥원(SBA)이 공동으로 주관하는 이노베이션 워크숍 폐회사도 맡는다.

26일과 27일에는 서울 쉐라톤 워커힐 호텔에서 열리는 아시안 리더십 컨퍼런스에 참석, 개회식에서 기조연설을 할 예정이다.

펠르랭 장관의 방한 기간 이동통신과 디지털 혁신 경제 분야 24개 프랑스 기업으로 구성된 대표단이 함께 방문해 삼성전자 등 한국의 디지털 분야 주요 기업을 만난다.