The Jordanian Ambassador here hosted a luncheon celebrating the 68th Independence Day of his country and bilateral relations with South Korea in Seoul on Tuesday.

In a sprawling reception that showcased Jordanian culture and cuisine, hundreds of government officials, foreign dignitaries and friends of Jordan celebrated the independence of the Hashemite Kingdom and the burgeoning Jordanian-South Korean ties.

As of 2013, there were about 600 South Korean nationals residing in Jordan, many of them Christian missionaries, and 15 South Korean companies with operations in the kingdom.

For example, Korea Electric Power Corporation completed construction of the 370-megawatt Al Quatrana power plant in 2012 at the cost of $500 million. The South Korean state-owned company maintains a majority stake in the plant.

Jordan greenlighted last year the construction of its first-ever nuclear reactor. The unit will be constructed by a South Korean consortium. After many delays, the consortium will build the 5-megawatt, $130 million structure at Jordan University of Science and Technology near the northern city of Irbid. It should be operational by 2016.

In 2008, Jordan’s Atomic Energy Commission signed an MOU with KEPCO to do a site selection and feasibility study on a possible nuclear power and desalination project, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Jordan and South Korea established diplomatic relations in July 1962. South Korea opened an embassy in the Jordanian capital of Amman in 1975. Jordan conducted its diplomatic affairs from its embassy in Japan, but that changed in 2010.

Omar Al-Nahar opened his country’s chancery here in October 2010, becoming Jordan’s first resident ambassador in South Korea.

(ephilip2014@heraldcorp.com)