Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade reported to President Lee Myung-bak on its goals and their subsequent action plans for the year 2008 on March 11, 2008.
To realize the new administration’s vision of ‘advanced and prestigious country’ and ‘contributing member of the international community,’ the Ministry has laid down three goals for this year: diplomacy to improve security, diplomacy to revive the economy and diplomacy to become a contributing member of the international community.
To implement its first goal, 'diplomacy to improve security' , the Ministry will promote summit meetings and high-level talks with countries concerned to consolidate mutual trust. In particular, the Ministry will continue to further bolster and develop Korea-US alliance through holding Korea-US summit meetings. Moreover, the Ministry will make efforts for early ratification of the KORUS FTA and entry of Korea into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program within this year.
With regard to the North Korean nuclear issue, diplomatic efforts will be made for the expeditious implementation of the disablement and the submission of a complete and a correct declaration by North Korea.
Preparations for the implementation of 「Vision 3000」initiative will commence when substantial progress on the nuclear dismantlement of North Korea is achieved. (According to the initiative, economic assistance will be provided over the next ten years, in cooperation with the international community, to help North Korea open up more and boost its per capita national income to $3,000, once Pyongyang abandons its nuclear program and chooses the path to openness.)
Moreover, the Ministry will build an ‘East Asian New Cooperation Network’ with neighboring countries such as Japan, China and Russia, and other regional players including ASEAN, India and Australia.
It will open a new era of friendship and cooperation with Japan by resuming “shuttle diplomacy” between the two countries.
It will also strengthen cooperative ties with China with regard to the North Korean nuclear issue and promote bilateral relationship through summit meetings and increase bilateral trade volumes to reach US$200 billion before schedule.
The Ministry will actively engage in summit diplomacy with Russia and strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of energy and resources including the development of East Siberia.
In addition, the it will exert efforts to strengthen cooperation among Korea-US-Japan and Korea-China-Japan as well as deepen cooperative ties with ASEAN, India, Australia and New Zealand.
As a way to achieve the second goal ‘diplomacy to revitalize the economy’ , the Ministry will promote the ‘expansion of free trade agreements (FTAs) to create new growth engines’ in tandem with a ‘result-oriented energy and resources diplomacy’.
First, with summit meetings and exchange of visits by prime ministers with resources-rich countries such as Russia, Central Asia, Latin America and Southeast Asia, the Ministry will build an ‘Energy Cooperation Belt’ and diversify its sources of energy imports for securing stable energy supplies.
Also, the Ministry will host the ‘Meeting of Heads of Overseas Missions in resources-rich countries presided by the President. Within the first half of the year, the Ministry will launch the ‘Middle East Arab Society’ and hold the Central Asia Forum along with the Latin America and the Caribbean Forum. Through these meetings, the Ministry will expand the scope of energy and resources diplomacy.
In order to encourage transition toward a low carbon economy, the Ministry will strengthen its capacity for Post-2012 climate change negotiation, and expand international cooperation in areas of environment-friendly technology and renewable energy.
Following FTAs with advanced economies including the U.S. and the European Union (EU), the Ministry will push forward free trade agreements with newly-emerging economic blocs as well as resources-rich countries.
The formation of a FTA network worldwide will ultimately contribute to creating new growth engines to become an ‘advanced and prestigious nation,’ and to expanding Korea’s foothold in securing stable supplies of energy and resources.
The Ministry plans to realize its third goal, ‘diplomacy to become a contributing member of the international community’, by increasing official development assistance (ODA) to developing nations, promoting cultural diplomacy and improving consular services.
The Ministry plans to gradually increase the percentage of ODA against gross national income (GNI), and promote the enactment of ‘Foreign Assistance Act’.
Also, the Ministry will continue to spread ‘Hallyu (Korean Wave)’ all over the world and reinforce cultural exchanges by introducing foreign culture to Korea. The Ministry will also make efforts to support Korean cultural enterprises’ advance to the global market, as well as to inscribe our cultural heritage sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. For example, preparations are under progress to send cultural performance groups and hold film festivals in more than 50 countries in the world including Central Asia and Middle Eastern countries. An Arab Cultural Festival and a Central Asia Cultural Festival will be held in Korea as well.
In our efforts to provide consular services that ‘sincerely serve the people’ the Ministry will operate the Situation Room and the Consular Call Center 24 hours a day to effectively deal with accidents or incidents involving Korean nationals abroad.
In addition, the Ministry will exert efforts to promote the ‘Working Holiday’ program that enables the youth of Korea to get jobs and study abroad for a certain period of time. Also, we will provide assistance on strengthening the ‘Cyber Network for Korean Traders’ that supports the online cooperation between overseas Korean companies and domestic companies.
Lastly, in order to cope with a new global environment as well as to carry out various diplomatic tasks, we will seek to enhance diplomatic competency and reorganize the diplomatic workforce to focus on missions where we need to actively engage in energy and resources diplomacy as well as diversify the recruiting routes.
The policy report was followed by discussions among the participants on ways to pursue energy and resources diplomacy.
