Press Briefing
Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations Cho Tai-young
Nov. 12, 2013 14:30 KST


Good afternoon. Let me start today’s briefing.

Today, I have five announcements to make.

First, the government of the Republic of Korea extends its deepest consolation to the Philippines for the loss of many precious lives and enormous property damage incurred by the super Typhoon Haiyen in the country.

The ROK government, after consultations with the Philippine government, will actively support the country’s relief efforts for those displaced by the typhoon. Many countries in the international community, including the ROK, have already offered assistance to the Philippines or have expressed their will to support the country’s relief operations for victims as well as other recovery efforts.

The Philippines is not left alone. We hope that its people will overcome their sorrow and return to their normal lives as soon as possible.

As the ROK Prime Minister instructed at the Cabinet meeting earlier today, the Foreign Ministry will help minimize the damage to ROK nationals and extend its utmost support to those who have sustained any.

The ROK government will closely consult with the Philippine government with regard to emergency relief operations in the affected areas and support for the country’s recovery efforts.

At the government meeting chaired by Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul earlier today, the government finalized its assistance plan for the Philippines, which has already been announced.

Moving on to the second announcement, First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kyou-hyun will visit Israel, Palestine and Jordan from November 12 through 18.

He will first visit Israel to meet with Deputy Minister Zeev Elkin and Minister of International Relations Yuval Steinitz of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. On the occasion, the two sides will sign a bilateral working holiday agreement. Vice Minister Kim will also attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the new building of the ROK Embassy in the country.

Israel will be the first Middle Eastern country for the ROK to conclude a working holiday agreement with. The agreement, when brought in force, will allow 200 youngsters of the two countries to stay in each other’s countries for up to a year traveling and working.

The Vice Minister will then visit Ramallah, the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, to meet with President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss bilateral issues, including development cooperation.

The visit will mark the first of its kind in six years by a high-ranking government official of the ROK since the one in 2007.

The Vice Minister will last visit Jordan to hold the First ROK-Jordan Joint Commission Meeting and visit the Zaatari Syrian Refugee Camp.

In Dubai on November 16, Vice Minister Kim will preside over a meeting of the heads of the ROK diplomatic missions in the Middle East to discuss the recent changes in the regional situation and ways to carry out sales diplomacy. A meeting with local Korean entrepreneurs will also take place to learn about their challenges in their business operations.

Thirdly, Marzuki Darusman, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), will visit the ROK from November 13 through 15. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur will meet with officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Unification, the Ministry of Justice, the National Assembly and the National Human Rights Commission as well as relevant civic groups in the ROK.

Through the visit, the Special Rapporteur will gather information necessary for compiling a report to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the UN General Assembly.

Since the appointment to the current post in June 2010, Special Rapporteur Darusman has paid attention to North Korea’s humanitarian issues, including those involving political prison camps, North Korean defectors and the food situation, as well as families separated during the Korean War and North Korea’s criminal law.

In March 2013, the UNHRC established the Commission of Inquiry on North Korea’s human rights situation as recommended by the Special Rapporteur.

Fourthly, the Foreign Ministry has invited a renowned conductor and peace activist from Africa Armand Diangienda to the Creative Music Festival to be hosted by the Arts Council Korea on November 13.

The concert, where Armand Diangienda will conduct the Korean Symphony Orchestra, will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Seoul Arts Center.

As you may know, Armand Diangienda founded in 1994 the first-ever orchestra called the “Kimbanguist Symphony” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where classical music had remained an unexplored field until then.

This orchestra is the world’s only orchestra entirely composed of black musicians. Its story was made into a movie in 2010.

The forthcoming event will be an important program to be conducted jointly by the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism under the memorandum of understanding concluded in June.

The Foreign Ministry together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will continue to seek out and conduct a variety of programs in a bid to build a charming Korea trusted by the global community and achieve cultural enrichment at home and abroad.

Lastly, Moon Duk-ho, Director-General for African and Middle Eastern Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, and his Turkish counterpart Umit Yalcin will hold the 2nd ROK-Turkey Consultation on Middle East Policies in Seoul on November 14.

The Consultation is expected to serve as an opportunity for the two countries to exchange views on the changes in the situation in the Middle East since the 1st meeting held in December 2012.

This is all for my opening statement.


[Q&A]

Q: The emergency response meeting on the Philippines was held earlier today. Please share with us specific assistance to be offered to the country.

A: As already announced, the ROK government has decided to provide the Philippines with five million US dollars in emergency aid. Also having decided to dispatch the Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) to the Philippines, the ROK government is currently consulting with the country’s government in this regard.

The KDRT is expected to consist of 40-odd staff. Upon completion of the consultation with the Philippine government, the team is expected to be transported to the typhoon-affected area on one of the ROK’s military aircrafts.

The ROK government will continue close consultations with the Philippine government to see how the former can help the latter. A relevant government meeting took place earlier today, chaired by the Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. The ROK government will maintain such close inter-agency cooperation down the road.

As already let you know yesterday, as it was impossible to move to the typhoon-affected Tacloban on Leyte Island, the ROK Foreign Ministry set up and is running emergency response headquarters, composed of officials of the ROK Embassy in the Philippines, on the nearby island of Cebu.

Today, diplomats of the local ROK Embassy, the emergency response team from the ROK Foreign Ministry headquarters, and the advance KDRT, staff members of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Korean correspondents dispatched to cover the story will be transported to the affected area by an aircraft of the US Marine Corps.

Just before coming here for this briefing, I was informed that the US aircraft had not yet arrived at the site, causing a delay in the ROK group’s entry into the area.

Q: I understand that Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Cho Tae-yong will visit China tomorrow. Please confirm whether this is true. Please share with the purpose of this visit as well as what is being discussed among the ROK’s neighboring countries with regard to the Six-Party Talks.

A: Special Representative Cho Tae-yong will visit China from November 13 through 14. During the visit, he will meet with China’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Wu Dawei as heads of their countries’ delegations to the Six-Party Talks. The meeting will cover the full range of North Korean issues, including its nuclear development, and future responses.

As you must know, Special Representative Cho recently visited the US for a series of meetings. Likewise, China’s Special Representative Wu recently visited the country. As I told you the other day, the purpose of these various consultations is to discuss ways to make substantive progress on the North Korean nuclear issue.

Special Representative Cho’s visit to China will take place for this purpose as well. During the visit, Special Representative Cho, together with Special Representative Wu, will make an assessment and exchange views on the developments concerning the North Korean nuclear issue. As I have just said, the two Special Representatives are expected to hold an in-depth discussion on how to make substantive progress on the North Korean nuclear issue.

Q: I have a further question. Has the Chinese government provided a briefing on the outcome of Special Representative Wu’s visit to North Korea? What, if any, have you learned was discussed between China and North Korea?

Q: During his visit to China, Special Representative Cho is expected to hold an in-depth discussion with his Chinese counterpart. In the course of the consultation, the Chinese side will likely elaborate on the outcome of Special Representative Wu’s visit to North Korea.

Q: According to a press report, the ROK government has asked the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to release the list of experts who inspected Syria’s chemical weapons. Is this true? If so, is it the first for the ROK government to do so? Also, please tell us whether the ROK has ever tried to take part in such inspections conducted by international organizations.

A: The ROK government, as a member of the UN Security Council and the OPCW Executive Council, strongly supports efforts of the UN and the OPCW to inspect and verify Syria’s chemical weapons.

The ROK government recently sent the list of the country’s chemical weapons experts to the OPCW Secretariat. Should the OPCW make a request that experts be dispatched to it, the government is ready to meet the request. The ROK has provided the aforementioned list to the OPCW to join the international efforts to eliminate Syrian chemical weapons pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 2183.

The information in the press report that the ROK government has done so to identify the connection between North Korea and Syria with regard to chemical weapons is not true.

Moving on to your second question, I need to check on that. I will check and let you know later.

Q: I heard that the emergency response headquarters in Cebu are getting ready to move to Tacloban. Some voice concern over such things as public security in Tacloban. What self-protection measure, if any, does the team have to take?

A: Those at the emergency response headquarters set up in Cebu must be better informed than anyone else about the situation in Tacloban and its neighboring areas. So, they must be carrying out their operation, standing ready for unexpected incidents.

The accommodations for the relief team to be dispatched and all other arrangements have already been made. The relief team will be able to conduct its operations, paying full attention to the situation.

Q: A Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is taking place in New Delhi, India, this week. Will any bilateral meetings with such countries as Japan take place on the sidelines of the ASEM meeting?

A Korea-Japan High-Level Economic Consultation took place in Tokyo yesterday. What is your outlook for a Korea-Japan strategic dialogue on security?

A: I will check on the Foreign Minister’s plan for bilateral meetings and let you know. I have heard that there will a few bilateral meetings, but I will double check them.

In answer to your question regarding the Korea-Japan security policy consultation, let me tell you that nothing has been finalized. The meeting has not materialized in last three years, and some raise the need to hold it. Nevertheless, nothing, including its date, has been decided in that regard.

Q: To my knowledge, at the Korea-Japan High-Level Economic Consultation yesterday, the issue of compensation rights of Koreans forced into labor during Japan’s colonial rule was raised, over which the Japanese delegation expressed concern. Please share with us once again the ROK government’s position on the compensation issue.

The lawsuits are currently under way. What measures, if any, can the executive branch take before the Supreme Court issues a ruling?

A: That question was asked to me so many times during my briefings. Both the person asking that question and I seem to have so much patience.

To reiterate, the relevant legal proceedings are currently under way in the ROK. The Foreign Ministry, as part of the executive branch, will refrain from expressing its position on the issue.

At the Korea-Japan High-Level Economic Consultation held yesterday, the ROK delegation made remarks to that effect.

Q: The ROK’s ban on fisheries imports from Japan is said to have also been brought up at the aforementioned Korea-Japan meeting. At the meeting, the ROK delegation referred to the ban as a temporary measure and asked the Japanese government to make efforts.

Will this “temporary measure” be lifted when certain conditions are met? What measures, such as a joint investigation into the radioactivity in the waters near the Fukushima nuclear power plant, for instance, will the ROK government take on its part?

A: Are you asking about a ROK-Japan joint investigation? As far as I know, the ROK government has not proposed conducting a ROK-Japan joint investigation.

To reiterate, the measure was put in place in response to considerable concern in the ROK over the safety of fisheries products triggered by the radioactive water leaks from the Fukushima plant. Please understand this as the background of the measure.

I will conclude today’s briefing.


* unofficial translation