Oracle president Mark Hurd said Tuesday that the firm would continue to charge Java license fees, saying that Java is its key technology.

In a press conference marking Hurd’s first visit here to kick off the Oracle Optimized Data Center event series, he emphasized the importance of the firm’s Java development platform.

“(Java) is the core development platform for our middleware platforms and applications,” he told reporters. “Java has very exciting prospects for the future and we have over 9 million Java developers.”

However, Hurd refused to comment about the litigation case between Oracle and Internet search giant Google on copyright infringement claims.

“Since it is litigation, it’s best for me not to comment,” he said.

The event takes place as Oracle failed the win the Android’s allegedly Java-related patent infringement case in court. Oracle had said it wanted as much as $1 billion in damages as well as a court order to force Google to negotiate a license for Java or redesign its Android software.

On a separate front, the president said he chose Korea as his first destination for the firm’s global world tour because “Korea is a great IT market and it has very sophisticated and global companies.”

Claiming that Oracle already has a large presence in the country, it is preparing itself for a higher level of integration, lower costs for customers and simplified IT.

“I would like to take the chance to become the biggest player in the market and it’s going to happen,” he said.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)