Choo Byung-jik was 13th South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

n Minister for Construction.

Kazakh construction agreement

Minister Byung-jik announced on 25 September 2006 that the governments of South Korea

Government of South Korea

The Government of South Korea is divided into executive, judicial, and legislative branches. The executive and judicial branches operate primarily at the national level, although various ministries in the executive branch also carry out local functions. Local governments are semi-autonomous, and...

 and Kazakhstan

Government of Kazakhstan

The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan oversees a presidential republic. The President of Kazakhstan, currently Nursultan Nazarbayev, is head of state and nominates the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government...

, represented by Byung-jik and his Kazakh counterpart, agreed to increase cooperation in construction by having South Korean construction companes build roads, railways, airports and ports. According to a statement released by the South Korean Ministry, the Nazarbayev administration

Nursultan Nazarbayev

Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev has served as the President of Kazakhstan since the nation received its independence in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union...

 plans to build 4,000 kilometers of railways and 8,000 km of highways by 2015 to expand transportation infrastructure for the Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

 field.

South Korea-Libya relations

The fourth session of the Libya-Korea mixed cooperation commission, co-chaired by Byung-jik and Ali Zikri, Secretary of the Libyan People's General Committee for communications and transport, was held on 21 September 2006. According to Angola Press, "Zikri promoted joint investments, transfer of technology, increase in trade and training, human resources development, tourism, health and energy." Zikri hinted that the Government of Libya wanted Korean investment in transportation and sanitation infrastructure development. Byung-jik expressed the South Korean government's willingness to increase investment in development projects, and cited the creation of an artificial river as evidence of past cooperation between the two nations. The ministers agreed to establish an economic, investment and tourism commission, and a construction, energy, training, transport, oil and electricity commission, to decide how cooperation, specifically South Korean investment, would benefit Libya and South Korea. Byung-jik accompanied South Korean Prime Minister Han Myeong Sook

Han Myeong Sook

Han Myeong-sook was the Prime Minister of South Korea from April 2006 to March 2007. She was South Korea's first and so far only female prime minister. She was from the UNDP as a member for Ilsan-gab, and is a graduate of Ewha Womans University in Seoul with a degree in French literature...

 and the vice-ministers of foreign affairs, industry, information and communications, when they arrived in Tripoli

Tripoli

Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...

 on 20 September for an official visit. Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmoudi hosted a dinner for the South Korean delegation.