State Visit from South Korea to Norway: June 12 - 13

[ROYAL NORWAY]

Thanks, Mybags & Eya!

English Royal House articles from yesterday and today with lots of information, including some translated quotes from The King's gala-speech: 1 - 2.

Royal Central article from yesterday by Norwegian Royal Commentator, Oskar Aanmoen, with even more detailed information - and some photos he has taken himself (link).

The gala-speech by President Moon Jae-in (link).

And yes, there were live links available from the gala-dinner, but I got a bit distracted yesterday.
Anyway, here is a 40-min NRK video, where one can see the royal procession from 15:00 (link).
And to those who may be wondering about the woman walking at Princess Astrid's side? Well, that's her *lady-in-waiting* (''hoffdame''), Anne Heje. - That position, BTW, was abolished at the Norwegian court in the late 1990s (due to a modernization process), but the Princess still wanted to keep hers.

Hmm, was there anything else to mention? Yes, the orders:
The King was given The Order of Mugunghwa - Grand Cross with Collar (English Wikipedia article - link).
The Queen was given The Order of Diplomatic Service Merit - Grand Cross (English Wikipedia article - link).
President Moon Jae-in was given The Order of St. Olav - Grand Cross (English RH-article - link).
First Lady Kim Jung-sook was given The Order of Merit - Grand Cross (English RH-article - link).

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Originally Posted by mybags

Some pictures of the dinner:

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/PYH2019061...=image/general
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/PYH2019061...=image/general

Hard to tell if Princess Astrid is wearing a tiara.

She is wearing her aigrette tiara with ruby flowers (read about it here - link).

And to Mbruno, I answer your question above in the post.

[Muhler]

Why did the court aboslish the LiW? Surely royal women still require an trusted assistant from time to time. - Quite often actually.

[ROYAL NORWAY]

Was a bit busy here!

Because The Queen saw the position as "old-fashioned." So now she and The Crown Princess are just using their private-secretaries.

[polyesco]

This State visit has been nice, but it's moments like these that an extra princess (ML) could come in handy to accompany the king.

[HereditaryPrincess]

As a fan of Korean pop I'm pleased to see Monsta X performing for King Harald during the visit!
I agree that it would've been nice to see some more members of the RF accompanying Harald and Sonja during the visit; even Ingrid Alexandra with either one of her parents would have been nice (and would've helped her familiarise herself with the world of state visits - though perhaps, especially as she's changing schools, they didn't want her to miss a school day).

[Somebody]

Originally Posted by maria-olivia

Well , lucky they have Princess Astrid .

Those two ladies lighted up the procession -into the dining hall- that looked like a rather solemn occassion otherwise

[TNsinger]

Originally Posted by HereditaryPrincess

As a fan of Korean pop I'm pleased to see Monsta X performing for King Harald during the visit!
I agree that it would've been nice to see some more members of the RF accompanying Harald and Sonja during the visit; even Ingrid Alexandra with either one of her parents would have been nice (and would've helped her familiarise herself with the world of state visits - though perhaps, especially as she's changing schools, they didn't want her to miss a school day).

Also, she is only 15 years old. That's far too young to be hob-nobbing with heads of state. Ingrid Alexandra should be ready to take on more state events when she is 18 like most other European royal ladies. Princess Martha Louise would have done good in a pinch after Astrid, but considering her controversial romantic relationship status at the moment, she probably was not even considered.

[Muhler]

Congratulations on your first post, TNsinger.

No, I think it's safe to say Märtha Louise is out in regards to state and official visits.
Having her entertaining foreign diplomats about angel-schools and urging them to come "out of their boxes" is perhaps not something the Norwegian Foreign Ministry is that interested in.
And should she end up getting married to Durek, he would automatically be invited. And... well, I'm sure foreign diplomats would find him most entertaining.

Fifteen is a little too young for Ingrid to take an active role in such a visit, but being there when the foreign dignitaries are received would be a good start IMO.
Unfortunately the number of fully functioning adult royals in NRF is reaching a critical level, so Ingrid will, IMO be needed much earlier than her teen colleagues in other countries. A matter of sheer necessity.

[wartenberg7]

Originally Posted by Mbruno

Princess Märtha Louise could come in handy in moments like these if she were still a working member of the Royal Family.

Unfortunately it won’t get better until Ingrid Alexandra is old enough to take up official royal duties. The King and Queen and Princess Astrid are aging , and Crown Princess MM’s health problems preclude her from being as active as she used to be before.

Looking at this, it reminds me a lot of the 1960s, when King Olav was a widower, before Sonja came into the family!

[TNsinger]

Originally Posted by Muhler

Congratulations on your first post, TNsinger.

No, I think it's safe to say Märtha Louise is out in regards to state and official visits.
Having her entertaining foreign diplomats about angel-schools and urging them to come "out of their boxes" is perhaps not something the Norwegian Foreign Ministry is that interested in.
And should she end up getting married to Durek, he would automatically be invited. And... well, I'm sure foreign diplomats would find him most entertaining.

Fifteen is a little too young for Ingrid to take an active role in such a visit, but being there when the foreign dignitaries are received would be a good start IMO.
Unfortunately the number of fully functioning adult royals in NRF is reaching a critical level, so Ingrid will, IMO be needed much earlier than her teen colleagues in other countries. A matter of sheer necessity.

I'm glad we can agree on Martha Louise. I think it's safe to say she won't be entertaining any foreign dignitaries from now on. At least it doesn't appear that way from what her brother, the CP has recently said.

As for Ingrid-Alexandra, I still think 15 is far too young to entertain adults and foreign dignitary adults at that. Queen Sonja seems in fine shape as well, it just so happened she had a foot injury, nothing serious that would keep her out of these events for an extended period of time so I don't think it's at a critical level just yet. We can agree to disagree on that point. If it does come down to a it like it did for this state visit, all we can hope is that Princess Astrid can hang in there for a couple more years until Ingrid-Alexandra comes of age. Which doesn't seem to be a problem for her at the moment :)