1. At the Foreign Ministry on November 1, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who was on a visit to the Republic of Korea. On the heels of the meeting, the two sides signed a revised bilateral “Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme (IPCP),” a document in which basic principles and main areas for the ROK-NATO cooperation are stipulated.

2. The revised IPCP mainly calls for the ROK and NATO holding consultations on a regular basis, making reciprocal visits and exchanging information in a bid to step up cooperation in the areas of cyber security, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), terrorism response, disaster relief, and interoperability and connectivity in political and military affairs.

3. The IPCP is a framework of bilateral cooperation between NATO and its partner country. Having concluded its first IPCP with NATO in September 2012, the ROK has since been working with the body. Given the need for the growing substantive bilateral cooperation and the changing international security situation to be reflected in the IPCP, the two sides, after discussions since late 2016 on its proposed revision, signed the revised version during the NATO Secretary-General’s visit to the ROK.

4. With the bilateral IPCP revised, the ROK and NATO, which share such values as peace, democracy and human rights, are expected to further reinforce the global partnership in a future-oriented manner in not only addressing North Korea’s nuclear and missile issues but also responding to such new security threats as terrorism and in cyber space.


* unofficial translation