South Korea's delegation to attend Costa Rica president's inauguration

South Korea said Thursday it will send a government delegation to the inauguration of Carlos Alvarado as Costa Rica's president next week.

Rep. Cho Jung-sik of the ruling Democratic Party will lead the delegation to the ceremony to be held in San Jose on Tuesday, the foreign ministry announced. Cho is the chairman of the National Assembly's land, infrastructure and transport committee. The other envoy is Rep. Kim Sung-soo of the same party.

They plan to hold a separate meeting with the new leader of Costa Rica and deliver President Moon Jae-in's congratulatory message and Seoul's hope for complementary cooperation between the two nations, according to the ministry.

Alvarado, a center-left presidential candidate, won the nation's presidential elections last month.

"Costa Rica is a core friendly country of South Korea in the Central American region, sharing such universal values as democracy, human rights and peace," the ministry said. "Since forging diplomatic relations in 1962, (the two sides) have maintained close friendly ties in various sectors."

Especially, it added, they are expected to strengthen substantive partnerships in the government procurement, ICT, biodiversity and clean energy fields. (Yonhap)