1. On the morning of March 27, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, jointly with the Ministry of Unification, presented to President Park Geun-hye at Cheong Wa Dae its 2013 policy briefing on an envisioned era of hope and happiness for the people of the country.
2. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se presented as his Ministry’s foreign policy vision the “realization of a happier Korean people, Korean Peninsula and global community”. Under this vision, the Ministry will seek to achieve peace and shared development of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, a trusted Korea that contributes to the advance of humanity, a happier Korean people and a charming Korea.
○ To these ends, the Foreign Ministry will carry out trust-based diplomacy in partnership with the people, focusing on the following policy tasks:
● Providing an impetus for resolving the North Korean nuclear issue;
● Coordinating and advancing the alliance with the US and the partnership with China as well as stabilizing the ROK-Japan relations;
● Promoting the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative and expanding cooperation with Eurasia;
● Playing a role as a responsible middle power contributing to world peace and progress;
● Protecting the safety and rights of Korean nationals residing abroad and expanding both public diplomacy and jobs diplomacy;
● Strengthening the capacity for economic cooperation.
3. Minister Yun briefed on the long-stalled North Korean nuclear issue amid North Korea’s continued threats and provocations. He said that the government will seek to prevent further provocations by North Korea based on a strong deterrence, while continuing to put pressure on North Korea through faithful implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2094 along with the international community. At the same time, the ROK government will seek to create a momentum to make progress on the North Korean nuclear issue through various consultations such as bilateral and trilateral talks with members of the Six-Party Talks.
4. With the numbers of the ROK’s overseas travelers and residents reaching 14 million and 7 million respectively, Minister Yun said that the Foreign Ministry will seek to better protect their safety, rights and interests by offering “consular services for a happier Korean people.” To this end, the Ministry will undertake the following tasks:
● Strengthening the early warning and immediate response systems for safe overseas travel by setting up more channels for broadcasting overseas travel information, and expand its overseas legal assistance program to offer free legal consultation service (from the current 50 diplomatic missions to 55 by the end of this year and 75 by the end of 2017);
● Improving the convenience of its passport service for its people by making paperless passport application service available at all domestic local government agencies and all of its overseas missions by the end of 2016 (from the current 17 local government agencies and 7 overseas missions to 43 and 24 respectively by the end of this year and all government agencies and missions by the end of 2016);
● Starting providing relevant educational contents produced by the Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) to Korean-language schools across the world by the early next year.
5. Minister Yun mentioned that the Ministry will take its part to implement the government-wide vision to realize an economic revival and usher in a new era of hope. To this end, the Foreign Ministry will take the following actions:
● Seeking to expand its economic cooperation capacity and work closely with other relevant government agencies, and extend every possible support for the new trade negotiation system set up with the recent government reorganization;
● With the aim of creating jobs for youth under the banner of global youth project, training and fostering global development talents by increasing the number of World Friends of Korea, official development assistance (ODA) youth interns and junior development consultants to 25,000, 3,000, and 300 respectively over the next five years;
● Carrying out public diplomacy with the aim to provide youth with more jobs and opportunities to earn insights on global matters, including through such programs as “junior public diplomats”, “next-generation cultural leaders for developing countries” and “public diplomacy interns at overseas diplomatic missions”;
● Boosting the number of partner countries for the Working Holiday Program from the current 15 to 25 over the next 5 years.
6. After the briefing, key relevant officials from the Foreign Ministry and other related government agencies discussed ways to undertake key policy tasks, including those regarding the North Korean nuclear issue and the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative. Furthermore, they were briefed by a member of the ROK’s provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Afghanistan on his experience and lessons during his service. With regard to ODA, an area calling for interagency cooperation, relevant officials from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Ministry of Security and Public Administration, and the Office for Government Policy Coordination had an in-depth discussion on implementing the ODA policy in a more integrated and efficient manner.
Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA
*unofficial translation
