Dominican Republic Ambassador Grecia Fiordalicia Pichardo honored Park Dong-sil, former Korean ambassador to the Caribbean nation, last week for strengthening bilateral ties.

In a ceremony on Wednesday, Park was awarded “the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sanchez and Mella,” conferred by the Dominican Republic president to individuals who have performed distinguished services.

Park, currently the Korean ambassador to Morocco, served as an envoy to the Dominican Republic from 2011 to 2014.

The award is comprised of seven grades, and Park received the third highest distinction -- “Grand Cross with Silver Breast Star” -- reserved for parliamentarians, Supreme Court officials, ministers, ambassadors, apostolic nuncios and archbishops.

The embassy stated that the Dominican Republic government recognized Park’s contributions to modernizing the country’s customs services and knowledge-sharing programs and instituting the Center for Information Access and the Center for the Korean Project on International Architecture.

By Joel Lee (joel@heraldcorp.com)