At a glance…
- Princess Anne is on tour in South Korea and Thailand as a representative of the British Crown.
- Her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, accompanied her on the tour.
- Among her engagements in South Korea were a visit to a university where she was photographed shaking hands with a humanoid robot.
Many of us might be wary of humanoid robots coming up to shake our hands, but Princess Anne appeared delighted to meet some androids at the University of Korea on her tour of the country.
Princess Anne and her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, are both touring around South Korea and Thailand as representatives of the British Crown.
They have numerous engagements starting at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery, the only United Nations cemetery in the world. It is the resting place for over two thousand soldiers, sailors and airmen, mostly individuals from the UK, but also Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and South Africans are buried here.
There, the Princess Royal paid respects to service people to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Imjin River. Princess Anne, in her signature sporty sunglasses, laid a wreath and also placed a single white chrysanthemum on Private Martin Hogan’s grave. He was just 19 when he was killed on the same date as Anne’s visit. She also met with Korean veterans during her time there.
Following that sombre occasion, the Princess Royal and Sir Tim went to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, one of the largest shipbuilding locations in the world.
She then met with President Lee Jae Myung at his residence, Cheong Wa Dae (the Blue House). He was photographed laughing with the Princess.
Sir Tim and Princess Anne then attended a reception at the British Embassy in Seoul.
But one of the more eye-catching engagements was at Korea University. The Princess was given a demonstration of robotics at the university and Princess Anne appeared delighted by a robot greeted them with a wave.
She also shook the hand of the robot, who also bowed to her at one point.
During her time, Anne reportedly spoke about the advancing nature of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the team there explained that the robot can learn through trial and error.
