1. During his visit to New York to attend the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met bilaterally with his Romanian counterpart Lazar Comanescu on September 19, local time. In their meeting, the two top diplomats took note of the advances in the Republic of Korea-Romania relations and discussed ways to step up substantive cooperation and coordination on the North Korean nuclear issue.

2. The two Ministers noted with appreciation steady advances in the bilateral ties since the establishment of diplomatic relations, as can be seen from active inter-governmental consultations, such as at the policy consultation in 2015 that had marked the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the meeting of the joint committee for industrial cooperation, as well as a more-than-60-fold increase in the bilateral trade volume. They agreed to work closely together to move the bilateral strategic partnership substantially forward.

° In particular, the two Ministers agreed to make joint efforts to diversify substantive cooperation between their two countries, including by boosting high-level exchanges, setting up a center for information technology (IT) cooperation and thereby making progress in IT cooperation.

3. With regard to the North Korean nuclear issue, Minister Yun stressed to Minister Comanescu that North Korea’s fifth nuclear test, different from the previous rounds in terms of the strength and interval, is a grave provocation in flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2270. He asked Romania to work with the ROK on the bilateral and EU levels to toughen unilateral sanctions.

° Minister Comanescu emphasized that Romania has supported efforts for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that North Korea’s recent nuclear test constitutes a serious violation of UN Security Council resolutions. He mentioned that Romania will remain in close cooperation with the ROK for the adoption of a new Security Council sanctions resolution and the EU’s unilateral sanctions.

4. The ROK-Romania meeting is seen to have served as an opportunity to promote substantive cooperation on infrastructure and IT with Romania, the ROK’s only strategic partner in Southeast Europe, and to broaden the cooperation base for inducing the UN and the EU to pressure North Korea.


* unofficial translation