Report of the Annual Work Plan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the President On December 31, 2009, from 8:00 a.m., the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of Unification, and the Ministry of National Defense presented their Annual Work Plans for the year 2010 to President Lee Myung-bak at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. The three ministries each reported to the President on the evaluation of their policies in 2009, and the basic directions and action plans for major tasks for 2010. The Policy Report was followed by a discussion between government and civilians.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade reported that it will actively pursue global diplomacy to build a Global Korea, and to that end, it will focus on the following four priority tasks during 2010.

ㅇ Expanding the horizon of summit diplomacy
 - Promoting mutually beneficial economic cooperation with regions such as the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, and developing strategic partnership with the EU
 - Actively participating in constructing global governance through major international conferences such as the Davos Forum, the Nuclear Security Summit, and the Shangri-la Dialogue

ㅇ Successfully hosting the G20 Summit
 - Supporting our leading role in the process of agenda-setting and discussions at the G20
 - Supporting active participation of main business people from the G20 member countries

ㅇ Enhancing our role in the international community
 - Constructing more advanced system of global development cooperation by joining the OECD DAC
 - Expanding the international peace-building activities including the increase in PKO participation and the establishment of PRT in Afghanistan
 - Enhancing our role as a leading country for low carbon green growth

ㅇ Supporting overseas activities of Korean people and companies
 - Helping Korean companies to make inroads into the procurement markets for international organizations and the ODA, valued as much as 60 billion dollars
 - Promoting the agreements for the visa waiver or simplification with main countries such as China, Russia, and India
 - Increasing the number of participants in Working Holiday programs to over 60,000

Also, MOFAT reported its plans to continue diplomatic efforts to make substantial progress in the North Korean nuclear issue, and in a bid to prepare for the future, to establish more advanced diplomatic system commensurate with rising need for diplomacy at home and abroad.

The discussion between government and civilians dealt with the three ministries’ common issues of “creating a new paradigm for peace on the Korean Peninsula and South Korea-North Korea relations,” “building a Global Korea,” and “enhancing national defense operation.”