Retrospecting last 4 years as Spain envoy, Spain Amb. Gonzalo Ortiz Diez-Tortosa threw a dinner reception to mark Spain National Day 2018 at the Dongdaemun Marriott last Friday evening on Oct. 12. Spain Amb. pledeged to pray for the lasting peace on the peninsula in addition to committing himself to devoting to increasing bilateral ties between the two countries even though he will return to Spain next month, wrapping up his successful duty as Spain top diplomat in Korea during last 4 years.

Gonzalo Ortiz has been forging a very special relationship with the NDNnews (www.ndnnews.co.kr) & Korea Amb. Culture Friendship Association as well while he has been diligent in attending our regional invitation trip programs regularly with his Madame Ana Cosmen & daughter and contributing many valuable English articles including New Year message, PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games message, North Korea denuclearization issue, to name just a few.

As far as we remember, Spain Amb. families attended Cheolwon Ice Trekking winter tour in Jan. 2015, Daegu Dalseong Tomato Festival, Chilgok Nakdong River Peace Great Festival, 2018 PyeongChang Test Event trip, and last but not least recent Daejeon Seo-gu Art Festival on May this year, to name just a few.

As regarding his valuable English articles, first off in relation to North Korea’s denuclearization issue Amb. Gonzalo contributed as follows to the Seoulcity magazine & NDNnews (www.ndnnews.co.kr): The recent confirmation of the upcoming 3rd South-North Korea Summit, as well as the US-North Korea Summit has been received with great hopes and expectations around the world. Let us give credit to President Moon Jae-in and congratulate him for the success of the Winter Peace Olympics in PyeongChang!

The Government of Spain has also conveyed a positive view of this announcement, and has expressed its appreciation to the Republic of Korea for its efforts to implement these talks. Spain also welcomes the international community’s cooperation in working hard towards a peaceful and nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

Hopefully, the dialogue procedures will lead to open talks on important regional and global peace and security issues resulting in a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

But not until a successful outcome is reached, pressure from the international community should continue endorsing the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, including the UNSC sanctions regime and regional and national measures for its implementation.”

Because former IOC Chairman Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch had a very special connection with the 1988 Seoul Olympic, Spain Amb. Gonzalo contributed a special message regarding the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic games as well to the Seoulcity magazine Feb. issue, this year as follows: “I would like to extend my warm congratulations to the Organization Committee of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic& Paralympic Winter Games for their great efforts to host this very meaningful international event.

This is probably the biggest event held in Korea in the last 30 years since the Seoul Olympic Games of 1988 when this country demonstrated its exceptional organization skills and impressive economic performance. By the way, the Spanish International Olympic Committee’s Chairman at the time was Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch, who made a big contribution to convince many countries to participate, and for the extraordinary success of these Games. Under the slogan of ‘Passion. Connected’, PyeongChang symbolizes a place where everyone is connected with passion for winter sports and Koreans share their warm affection and their innovative technology, opening a new horizon for a new beginning, and a harmonized world.

The world’s best athletes will compete in 102 events in 15 sports disciplines for over 100 gold medals. Spanish athletes will also have their presence in different sports at the Olympic Games, such as Javier Fernández, who has five European and two World figure skating titles already and aims to reach an Olympic medal on ice at PyeongChang.

As President Moon put it, this is ‘a good chance for the people of Korea to heal and regain hope by successfully hosting the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games’. I sincerely wish all the best for the successful celebrations of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games. Thus, I firmly believe that this would be a great opportunity for Korea to show the rest of the world its spirit of unity and strength through sports.”

Anyway, all staffs of the NDNnews(www.ndnnews.co.kr) & Korea Amb. Culture Friendship Association sincerely hope a good luck for Spain Amb. Gonzalo Ortiz Diez-Tortosa and his families, remembering going with his families in many regional tour programs as a good memory for us.