Phil Turner: Life 'n' Seoul

NZ’s Ambassador to Korea, Philip Turner, was back in Wellington recently for a series of speaking engagements and a check-in with his bosses at MFAT. He spoke to the AMC about his job, and this country’s long-running relationship with Korea.  

Phil Turner’s something of an anomaly in New Zealand’s roll-call of serving Ambassadors.

After thirteen years with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he left, as some do, for a new life in the business sector, working with the then Dairy Board.

That was back in 1999.  

The new millennium meant a new international career, which turned into an eighteen-year stint working at a senior level for Fonterra, including in Europe, Japan and China.  

He didn’t really think about coming back to the Ministry. That’s something of a rarity.

“I really enjoyed Fonterra” he tells me. “But I’d stayed in touch with friends at MFAT, and after 18 years I just felt maybe it was time for a change.”

“My partner is Japanese, and we’d spent a lot of time in Japan and China, and I’ve always been keen on North Asia… so when this opportunity with Korea came up, I thought wow, that’s the third leg of the triangle, completing the trifecta along with Tokyo and Beijing.”  

So, Phil took the job at the end of 2017 a time of increased tensions on the peninsula, thanks in part to the new Trump presidency in Washington. He was back on the MFAT payroll.  

“I thought this is one of the most exciting places in the world – I still think that though tensions between the north and south have calmed down a lot”.

“Politically, economically, socially, Korea is a tremendously interesting place, and very important to New Zealand”.

Ambassador Turner meets South Korean President Moon Jae-in/ photo supplied

And did his business skills from the international dairy products industry help.?

“In Korea consumers love products that are natural, high quality, and good for you, so they are keen on much of what we can offer”. he says.

“They’re eating more of some of it, and the FTA that was signed in 2015 has been good for dairy, it doesn’t take us to total liberalisation, but products like butter and cheese will go to zero tariffs by 2024”.

“You have an aging Korean population, interested in a healthy lifestyle, and dairy has a good reputation, and there’s also these new protein foods which are really in demand - high value niche products rather than the traditional dairy products Kiwis would be familiar with”.

Quality dairy exports are just part of the wider positive picture most Koreans hold of New Zealand says Phil.

“Perception of New Zealand is sky high at present, founded on the “clean green” idea, the image of physical beauty and so on”.  “Our Prime Minister who enjoys a solid reputation in Korea for containing Covid, as well as for her leadership on a  number of other issues, like the explosion on Whakaari/White Island, and the Christchurch Mosque attacks.”

“The Lord of the Rings has also been enormously influential, so it’s a positive perception, but perhaps a little limited.”

“So, we’ve been working to modernise that image by presenting a more sophisticated side to New Zealand, particularly in the tech sector.”

The NZ Embassy worked with the Kiwi Chamber of Commerce in Korea and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to run a series of successful virtual events in 2020 to grow collaboration between tech firms in the two countries.

More than 50 organisations from across business and government were involved in “TechWeek” and the “Tech Roadshow”.

Korean consumers are generally affluent and sophisticated, and demand premium, high quality products/ photo wikimedia

While Phil has been busy growing new connections, the old ones remain robust, if a little dented under Covid.

“Usually, we’re looking at 90 thousand Korean tourists into New Zealand every year, more than 7 thousand students, major business travel links, and of course there are the 37 thousand Koreans who currently call Aotearoa home.”

As well as selling New Zealand to the South Koreans, Phil’s job also includes a quieter role. He’s also responsible for this country’s rather limited diplomatic relationship with North Korea.

“Unfortunately, we have not had a New Zealand ambassador visit the DPRK since 2014, and that’s simply because whenever we were ready to do so there would be some action from Pyongyang that made a visit impossible – a nuclear test, missile tests or whatever.”

“Most recently with COVID, even though the DPRK says they have no cases they have taken extreme measures to completely seal the border, essentially cutting flow of people and almost all trade.” “It’s not just us, nobody at present is able to visit the North in any capacity – and that includes the UN, the World Food Programme, or other international agencies.”

“We have very little info about what’s going on, and the NZ relationship is very minimal’. There have been a number of Kiwis living in North Korea, but I’m not aware of anyone still living there and we don’t encourage any visits, but because of Covid nobody is getting in or out”

“North Korea continues to be a very unfortunate country, with massive problems around famine and economic deprivation. “ he says.

“It’s hard to judge just how bad things are, but the country is in a very difficult situation, and despite having a GDP only about the size of Wellington, they manage to pay for a million-man army, nuclear weapons, and other weapons systems, which they are barrelling ahead with on the back of their own people”.

“New Zealand does its best to contribute to the international efforts to encourage de-nuclearisation and opening up – but its hard work when the government has the people over a barrel”

Phil perceives a change in the South as the years go by, and the differences between the two parts of the country begin to become starker. That’s part of the reason why an end to the current armistice seems unlikely anytime soon.  

“Most South Koreans would say they are one people with the North, but the urgency or the feasibility of the two joining together has significantly diminished in the last decade because it’s such a hard thing to achieve without massive conflict and cost”.

The government of Moon Jae-in remains steadfastly pro-unification, and there separate government ministry devoted to that goal. Moon himself has tried to kick-start the process, but ordinary South Koreans remain untroubled.

“They’re not that concerned partly because they are so prosperous now, and because they feel safe after 70 years of deterrence which has preserved an uneasy peace.”

“South Koreans regard the treat of the north as omnipresent – but not something they spend too much time thinking about.”

While the North may remain an omnipresent, but not overly concerning threat, Donald Trump’s summitry with the North actually resulted in a spike in South Korean support for the US.  Longer term trends suggest an increasing favourability towards the US, and a decreasing favourability towards  China.

On the world stage there are also signs of change, with the country recognising that with the economic clout of the world’s 9th largest economy, and a hard-won democratic political stability it now faces expectations from the international community it will do more to project and defend the global rules-based order (RBO) .   

“I think there is a rising consciousness in Seoul that the world is now looking to South Korea to step up in defence of the RBO."

“When President Moon came back from the G7 in the UK a few months ago, he talked about the pride South Koreans should be feeling at having arrived at the world’s top table, the fact that with success comes responsibility, and the fact other nations are now looking at South Korea to take a role in global issues, from the UN, the WTO, climate change, and regional bodies like APEC.”

“ Korea has been traditionally focussed on the issues on the peninsula, but now many countries, including New Zealand, would like to see Seoul speak out and contribute more broadly to the RBO that has allowed it to prosper and be secure.”.

“I think its gradually happening - we look around the region and we see few countries that share our values like South Korea does.”

Asia Media Centre