1. The Foreign Ministry’s taskforce formed on June 29 to seek ways to cope with Brexit held its first meeting on July 4. The meeting chaired by Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs Lee Tae-ho brought together the Directors-General for European Affairs, for Bilateral Economic Affairs, for International Legal Affairs, for Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs, for International Organizations, and for Policy Planning.

2. In the meeting, the taskforce reviewed the relevant developments at home and abroad in the wake of the UK decision on June 23 to leave the EU as well as ways for the Republic of Korea to cope with Brexit and relevant plans across the board, including diplomacy, security, economy and consular affairs.

3. Considering that the UK-EU negotiations will take place over the next two years to define their relations pursuant to Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the taskforce decided to complete by October 2016, when the UK-EU negotiations are expected to start, preliminary internal reviews on ways to revamp the legal systems concerning bilateral agreements between the ROK and the EU and between the ROK and the UK.

4. Even if Brexit is realized, the taskforce expects it to have little direct impact on the ROK people in terms of immigration and other consular affairs, as those matters have been governed by bilateral agreements, including those on visa exemption, on the working holiday program and on social security. The taskforce decided to hold an ROK-UK meeting of the directors-general for consular affairs in October 2016 to seek closer bilateral cooperation on consular affairs in an effort to prevent the ROK people from facing any relevant inconveniences.

5. At the meeting, the taskforce learned that the ROK’s 15 diplomatic missions in EU countries had held consultations with the UK, France, the Czech Republic, Greece and other major European countries, where the Korean companies are in robust operation, over the past week in a bid to seek ways to support the operations of Korean companies. The taskforce decided to continue analyzing, together with overseas diplomatic missions, the impact of Brexit on Korean companies operating overseas and work more closely with those companies.

6. On a related note, Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Kim Hyoung-zhin, who is currently on a visit to the UK, met on July 4 with Minister of State Hugo Swire of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, during which the two sides agreed to intensify policy consultations on Brexit with the UK and the EU.

7. The taskforce decided to make a checklist of measures necessary in each sector for coping with Brexit. Going forward, the taskforce will closely monitor relevant developments based on the checklist and deal proactively with Brexit-related moves together with overseas diplomatic missions. The taskforce will hold its second meeting on July 18.


* unofficial translation