1. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will attend the World Economic Forum (WEF), also known as the Davos Forum, to take place in the namesake city, Switzerland, from January 21 through 24. The forum themed “The New Global Context” will bring together government and business leaders from across the world as well as those from international organizations for discussions on political, economic and social changes and relevant challenges facing the international community as well as ways to cope with them.

2. This year’s Davos Forum will comprehensively cover ways to promote international private-public partnership for economic growth and sustainable development amid concerns over the expected prolongation of the slow growth of the global economy. Also among the top agenda items will be possible impact of geopolitics on international economy.

3. At the forum to highly focus on geopolitics, Minister Yun will bring attention to the fact that the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia are more unstable in terms of international geopolitics than any other region in the world. In addition, he will elaborate on the unification vision of the Republic of Korea to overcome 70 years of the division of the Korean Peninsula and achieve a “miracle” in a new, unified Korea.

4. In particular, the Davos Forum will mark the first opportunity for the ROK Foreign Ministry to explain to the international community its unification and other key foreign policies for the year 2015, after giving a relevant briefing to the President on January 19. As such, it is expected to help the ROK government win broader international support for its unification policy and the international community better understand the ROK’s foreign policy.

◦ In particular, Minister Yun will explain the ROK government’s unification vision, which has been more specified since President Park Geun-hye presented the idea of unification as a “bonanza” at its previous session in 2014. Accordingly, this year’s forum is expected to serve as an opportunity to bring renewed attention of the international community to the unification issue.

5. During the forum, Minister Yun will participate in open- and closed-door discussion sessions on the international situation and security. On the sidelines of the meeting, he will also attend the “Korean night” event.

◦ The Minister, together with leaders of major countries and international organizations, will take part in a closed-door discussion themed “New Global Context for Strategic Competition” on January 22, which will cover recent changes in the international order and its outlook for the year 2015.

◦ Later in the day, he will attend the “Korean night” event to be hosted by the Federation of Korean Industries under the theme of “a unified Korea and its infinite possibilities” and deliver a keynote speech on the ROK government’s unification policy. The event will also feature a video message from President Park asking for international support for the policy.

◦ On January 23, Minister Yun, together with leaders and foreign ministers of major countries as well as heads of international organizations, will attend another closed-door discussion session themed “Defining the Imperatives for 2015” as well as one of the forum’s main open panel sessions entitled “The Geopolitics Outlook” for 2015. In the latter session, he will present a geopolitics outlook for East Asia and explain the ROK government’s policies toward the Korean Peninsula and East Asia.

6. On the sidelines of the forum, Minister Yun will meet bilaterally with other key participants, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Foreign Ministers Laurent Fabius and Pavlo Klimkin of France and Ukraine, respectively; UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein; UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres; and Managing Director of the WEF Philipp Roesler, who served as Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister of Economics and Technology of Germany. In the meetings, Minister Yun will discuss with them ways to promote cooperation and other matters of mutual concern, and ask for their support for the ROK government’s unification policy. 


                Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

* unofficial translation