Two multilateral meetups here between high-level diplomats and other government officials from South Korea, Latin America and the Caribbean signals the government’s efforts to improve long-dormant diplomatic relations with Cuba, according to diplomatic sources.

The participation of Cuba’s deputy foreign minister in those talks adds to a unique opportunity to further improve ties between Seoul and Havana, said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzales, who heads the regional delegation that includes Cuba. Seoul and Havana have yet to establish formal diplomatic ties.

“I think it is a good start for them and many other countries to build up confidence and interactions,” Gonzalez said in an interview with The Korea Herald at a hotel in Seoul on Tuesday.

The Costa Rican foreign minister arrived in Seoul as head of the quartet delegation representing the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States for dialogue with South Korea. The multilateral meeting, which includes Cuba, took place on Wednesday.

Some 500 high-ranking officials from Latin America and the Caribbean, including Gonzalez and his Ecuadorian counterpart Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, are also in Seoul this week for the 7th High-Level Forum on Korea-Latin America Partnership under the theme of “Sharing Vision, Deepening Partnership,” which also took place on Wednesday.

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Pedro Nunez Mosquera, director-general of Multilateral Affairs and International Law, arrived on Wednesday to participate in the CELAC meeting. Although Cuba and South Korea do not have formal diplomatic relations, recent contact including Mosquera’s Wednesday visit signal South Korea’s efforts to inch toward finally establishing diplomatic relations.

Gonzalez acknowledged that Mosquera’s visit marked one of the highest-level visits ever by a Cuban official here. He also cautioned against expecting too much from it. “Where it leads depends on how each country takes advantage of this mechanism. It is up to them. (Costa Rica) wants to participate as actively as possible. That is why we assumed the presidency (of CELAC). It means a lot of work.”

The CELAC mechanism was established in December 2011 and comprises 33 countries from the western hemisphere, except the United States and Canada.

South Korea asked for Costa Rica’s help in persuading Cuba to participate in the CELAC quartet meeting in Seoul. Seoul even asked Costa Rica to relay messages directly to Havana that the CELAC meeting in Seoul depends on the communist island nation’s participation.

“We wanted Cuba to visit that much. It is true,” said a South Korean diplomatic source with firsthand knowledge on the overtures that Seoul made to get Cuba’s participation.

The quartet comprises Costa Rica, which holds the current presidency; Cuba, which held the presidency last year; Ecuador, which assumes the presidency in 2015; and Antigua and Barbuda, the country representing the Caribbean Community.

But Cuba is reluctant to engage with South Korea because of its close ties with North Korea, the diplomatic source said. It held off responding to South Korea’s invitation to take part in the CELAC meeting in Seoul until just one week before the July 2 meeting.

“We are trying very hard to open diplomatic relations with Cuba,” the source said. Some 4,000 South Korean nationals visit Cuba annually and there are over 1,000 ethnic-Korean Cubans who call the Caribbean nation their home. South Korean trade with Cuba topped $150 million in 2013. All this despite no formal diplomatic relationship.

Officials from South Korea and CELAC met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City in 2012 and 2013. Seoul wanted to host this year’s regional powwow so that the two sides could cover a wider range of issues, and so it could inch up ties with Cuba.

On the prospect of improving those ties, Gonzalez said vaguely: “Regardless of the discrepancies among ourselves or some members of the group with other countries I think one can make an effort to leave that at the side and treat them at the bilateral level.”

South Korea has been making some progress, however slow, over the past couple years to improve ties with Cuba. Previously, Cuban Vice Minister of Commerce and Trade Ileana Nunez visited Seoul in May at the invitation of KOTRA, South Korea’s trade promotion agency.

In March, Miguel Angel Ramirez, director-general for Asia and Oceania Affairs at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, visited Seoul for a workshop of the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation, during which he sat down for a one-on-one talk with Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Lee Kyung-soo. In 2013, Seoul organized a music festival in Daejeon in which a Cuban cultural delegation participated.

Korean culture is making inroads in Cuba, too, and without much assistance from North Korea’s embassy in Havana, which has some 10 diplomats posted there. Recently, four South Korean dramas were broadcast on Cuban television. In May, two more series began airing on Canal Habana.

The 7th High-Level Forum on Korea-Latin America Partnership saw vice-minister- and minister-level representatives discuss ways to enhance economic cooperation between the two sides in a range of areas, including trade, investment, resources, infrastructure, the environment and development. It has been held annually since 2008.

This year’s forum took place with the 2014 FIFA World Cup underway in Brazil. The foreign ministry hoped the forum would therefore draw more attention to and foster greater understanding of Latin America and the Caribbean among the general public.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2014@heraldcorp.com)