Muteb Saleh Al-Mutoteh, who served as the Kuwaiti Ambassador to South Korea, was replaced by Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi last week as the incoming Kuwaiti ambassador.

Al-Mutoteh served as his nation’s top diplomatic representative here from March 2009.

Al-Mototeh represented the oil-rich state during a time of generally expanding South Korean ties with Gulf states, as the third largest economy in East Asia sought to reduce its reliance on Iranian crude oil imports.

Over the past five years, South Korea also expanded its cultural ties and people-to-people exchanges with Arab nations, including the six Gulf Coast countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

For example, South Korea and its Arab partners established the Seoul-based Korea-Arab Society in 2008.

South Korea depends on Kuwait for about 15 to 20 percent of its crude oil imports. In July, South Korea imported 518,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Kuwait, making Kuwait the second-largest crude oil supplier for the country.

Albudaiwi arrived last week but has yet to present his Letter of Credence to President Park Geun-hye at Cheong Wa Dae.

Before this posting, Albudaiwi served as deputy director for Khalid Sulaiman Al-Jarallah, undersecretary of Foreign Affairs. He also served for a short time as the deputy chief of the Kuwaiti Embassy in the United States.

This marks his first foreign posting at the ambassador level. He has a degree in mass communications from University of Utah and in diplomacy from University of Oxford.

(ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)