TOKYO – After a two-day whirlwind trade mission to South Korea, state officials said upon their arrival Wednesday in Tokyo that they hope to persuade a number of South Korean government representatives and businesses to visit Maine and see firsthand the tourism, business and educational opportunities that await foreign investment.

Now halfway through the weeklong 2007 Gubernatorial Trade Mission to South Korea and Japan, Gov. John Baldacci, state Economic and Community Development Commissioner John Richardson, Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Ned Porter, Maine Office of Tourism Deputy Director Carolann Ouellette and Maine International Trade Center staff members Janine Bisaillon-Cary and Anne Hurst Nanovic said they were very pleased with the advice and quality of discussions during several meetings with high-powered South Korean officials and business people.

The mission began Monday with a visit to the Korean International Trade Association in Seoul. Chairman Hee-Beom Lee said Maine was one of the first states to visit South Korea on a trade mission this year and his country has a strong interest in Maine tourism and education. Lee also mentioned using South Korea’s trade surplus to make investments in U.S. plants, possibly in Maine, Baldacci said. Trade surplus is the profit that a country sees when it exports more goods than it imports.

On Tuesday, Baldacci, Richardson, Porter and Bisaillon-Cary visited the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry run by Kyung Shik Sohn, the CEO of CJ Corp., a food processing, pharmaceutical and entertainment conglomerate in Seoul.

Sohn stressed Koreans’ interest in “well-being food,” Bisaillon-Cary said. Understanding the health benefits of products is important to Koreans, she said. Baldacci said he explained that Maine already has several environmentally conscious businesses such as Backyard Farms in Madison.

Porter said he noticed that South Koreans use toothpicks made from potato starch and wondered if that might be a potential market for Maine potato farmers.

The group also learned that South Korea remains dependent on imports for the bulk of its pulp needs, which is an obvious opportunity for Maine, they said.

While Lee and Sohn said they had already been to Maine, Baldacci hopes to persuade them to come again to visit New England and its regional Canadian partners. The governor also wants them to visit with other states’ officials in efforts to promote the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which awaits passage by Congress and the South Korean government. If approved, the agreement would generate billions of savings by eliminating tariffs.

“Where we have allies like South Korea and Japan we have to reach out and solidify those relationships for economic activities. We’ve got to have those agreements and maybe better agreements than what we’ve had in the past,” Baldacci said.

Baldacci, Richardson, Bisaillon-Cary and Ouellette also met with Korean Air on Tuesday to encourage the airline to reinstate its direct flight from Seoul to Boston, which was offered before Sept. 11, 2001. The company asked the Maine delegation to gauge interest in New England for such a flight by carrying out a market study, the group said.

The group will have to make its own decision about how to go about advertising Maine in South Korea and Japan after receiving some conflicting advice from federal commerce advisers. In Seoul, U.S. Commercial Service Minster Counselor John Fogarasi encouraged Maine to promote itself to prospective investors and visitors as part of an attractive region, but John Peters, a minister counselor for the U.S. Commercial Service in Tokyo, said at a briefing Wednesday night that Maine should market itself as a state with unique natural scenery and great shopping. Individually and on average, Japanese spend thousands of dollars while shopping on their vacations, Peters noted.

“L.L. Bean’s or … Acadia National Park is a potential selling point in bringing people to Maine,” Richardson said.

Baldacci observed that South Koreans, who have recently taken up golfing with a vengeance, might find plenty of opportunity in Maine.

“You should have seen some of the reactions when I told them that two of the top 50 public golf courses in North America are in Maine,” Baldacci said. Sugarloaf Golf Club and Belgrade Lakes Golf Club are both on Golf Digest’s list of best public courses.

During the trade mission to South Korea and Japan, Ouellette is meeting with seven of the largest vacation tour operators in those countries and urging them to add Maine to their U.S. itineraries. Those companies that already offer trips to Maine are being encouraged to expand those trips. So far, Ouellette said response has been mostly positive. She has been offered free spreads in local travel magazines, provided she submits print and photographed materials, and while some still don’t consider Maine as much of a draw as Boston, Washington, D.C., or Niagara Falls, other tours are taking notice of Maine’s attractions, Ouellette said.