Hanwha Chairman Meets Heritage Foundation Chief

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[May 10, 2017] Hanwha Group Chairman Seung Youn Kim met Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, to discuss various issues between Korea and the United States, Tuesday, according to the business group.

It was their second meeting in seven months after they met last October in Seoul to amply demonstrate their three decades of friendship.

The Heritage Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., is an influential conservative think tank that has been key to shaping American policies on politics, economy, foreign affairs and national security.

According to the nation's eighth-largest conglomerate, Kim and Feulner exchanged opinions on a range of topics, including bilateral economic issues, the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia and the Korean presidential election held on the same day.

"I hope that you will help us improve the Korea-U.S. alliance in the midst of rising Northeast Asian tensions," Kim was quoted as saying to Feulner during the meeting.

The American was also quoted as saying that U.S. President Donald Trump thinks highly of the bilateral ties and is working hard to upgrade them.

After co-founding the think tank in 1973, Feulner served as president from 1977 to 2013 and assumed office once again this month. Observers say Feulner highly respects Korea as demonstrated by his decades-long friendship with Kim. He was close to Hanwha founder Kim Chong-hee, Chairman Kim's father.

Feulner is also seen as a close aide to Trump given that he served on the U.S. president's transition team. His influence on state affairs under the Trump administration is likely to increase.

In 2011, in recognition of Kim's contribution to non-governmental diplomacy between Seoul and Washington, the conservative think tank named one of its conference centers at its building the "Seung Youn Kim Conference Center."

Feulner, born in 1941 in Chicago, began his career as an analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He earned a bachelor's degree in English from Colorado's Regis University in 1963. After receiving an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in 1964, Feulner attended Georgetown University and the London School of Economics as a fellow. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh.