1. Minister Lee Suk-joon of the Office for Policy Coordination at the Prime Minister’ Office attended in his capacity as head delegate from the government of the Republic of Korea the fourth Supporting Syria and the Region Conference, which was held in London on February 4 to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Syria. At the conference, he announced the ROK’s plan to provide Syria with 12 million US dollars in humanitarian assistance.

◦ In his keynote speech, Minister Lee relayed the ROK’s pledge to provide Syria with 12 million US dollars in humanitarian assistance in response to the country’s humanitarian crisis and to conduct development cooperation projects worth 33 million US dollars in Syria’s neighboring countries. He added that a focus will be placed on education for refugees under the development cooperation initiatives announced by President Park Geun-hye at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015.

◦ In addition, Minister Lee stressed that in order to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Syria, humanitarian resources should be increased; humanitarian assistance should be linked to development cooperation; and political solutions should be sought to eradicate the roots of terrorism and conflicts.

2. The prolonged conflict in Syria over the past six years has been deepening the humanitarian crisis, and its neighboring, refugee-hosting countries have been shouldering increasing burdens as well. Amid this situation, the conference was co-hosted by the leaders of the UK, Germany, Kuwait and Norway as well as the UN Secretary-General to seek the international community’s assistance to Syria and its neighboring countries.

◦ The number of people in need of humanitarian aid in Syria stands at 13.5 million, more than half of which are children. Eighty percent of the country’s total population is in poverty, with 65 percent in extreme poverty. Syria’s neighboring countries, such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, are shouldering big economic and social burdens from hosting 4.3 million Syrian refugees.

◦ Under the circumstances, the UN requested the international community to provide 7.75 billion US dollars in humanitarian assistance to Syria and its neighboring countries in 2016. In particular, the conference also highlighted the importance of offering development assistance to enhance the resilience of the Syrian refugee-hosting countries.

3. The ROK government is strengthening “humanitarian diplomacy” as its new “brand” of diplomacy and will continue to increase humanitarian assistance to live up to the spirit of “leave no one behind” of the UN sustainable development goals.


* unofficial translation