Opening Remarks 

by H.E. Chung Eui-yong

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea

The 1st World Emerging Security Forum 

November 16, 2021

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, 

Chairman Klaus Schwab, 

Chairman Eric Schmidt, 

Vice-Chair Wei Shaojun,

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank you for joining us in this inaugural meeting of the World Emerging Security Forum, and would like to invite you to take the long view, both in looking back at the past as well as looking ahead into the future on what security has meant and should mean to us going forward.  

Security threats have been traditionally perceived as physical conflict involving the use of weapons. Looking back, however, it is striking to note that the level of military violence among countries has steadily come down. 

In terms of the frequency of physical harm that human beings inflicted on each other, even accounting for the horrible wars of the 20th century, there has been a steady but clear decline in violence.  

There are many factors that contributed to this trend, but the key ones would be the rise of literacy and education,eradication of poverty and the spread of democracy and respect for human rights. We can observe a clear correlation between the improvement in these standards and the rise in the human faculty to resolve differences through peaceful means. 

In particular, the unmistakable trend for democratic countries to not fight each other, a phenomenon that is famously known as “Democratic Peace”,reminds us again the value and universality of democratic principlesnot only for domestic governance but also to ensure international peace and security.   

But we are gathered here today because, despite this progress, we still do not feel completely safe and secure.  

And when I say “we”, I mean mainly “us” more as individuals than as citizens of our respective countries. Indeed, the concept of “human security” that has been developed in recent years captures the importance of addressing the threats that fall outside the traditional boundaries of inter-state military conflict.  

All of us have been deeply impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic for the past 2 years. More than five million people have lost their lives to the pandemic in less than two years to the pandemic, more than double the military casualties in the WWII. I only hope that this will be a temporary setback, and that in the coming months we will recover to return to a new normalcy.  

Today, I had a virtual meeting with foreign ministers of 14 Pacific Island countries. They all expressed their deep concerns about the on-going threats stemming from the pandemic. 

But they all argued that the biggest long-term and imminent threat comes from climate change and dealing with its effects ranging from extreme weather events, rising sea level and shrinking bio-diversity, all of which will uproot the way of life as we know it. They said in one voice that it is not the future that is at stake, but the present is at stake.

Then there are the risks that come hand in hand with the benefits we enjoy from a connected and automated world.Our threats to cyber security range from the mundane crash of our phones and computers to a system-wide failure that could cripple our infrastructure. 

Korea is recently suffering from an abrupt disruption in supply chain of previously not well known urea solution. Many automobile makers around the world is busy dealing with the sudden decrease of supply of semi-conductors.

These are just a few of the emerging security issues that we felt deserved a dedicated forum where we can try to make better sense of what lies ahead both in terms of the threat and, more importantly, how we should respond. 

If the threat is global, the response must also be global. Unfortunately, in our ongoing collective response to Covid and to climate change, we have seen how difficult it can be to let go of our state-centric habits and biases to be truly collective. 

We have also come to realize that today's security threats know no border drawn by men. No one can be free and safe until everyone is free and safe. Emerging security threats cannot be resolved by the efforts of any one country alone.

This is not to say that nation states are irrelevant. On the contrary, each government has a critical role to play in mobilizing civil society, academia, and business as well as making the connection across borders.  

We need to learn to become more flexible and nimble to ensure that the right player at the right time and at the right place can make the optimal intervention against these emerging threats. Governments have the authority and the responsibility, and, therefore, should also have the humility to make these hard choices.  

Today, as we are joined by leading experts of various nationalities and specialties, I hope we can agree on one thing: that solidarity and cooperation is the only way to tackle new challenges in international peace and security.

In May of last year, President Moon Jae-in declared Korea's commitment to take on a leading role in constructing a new world order based on solidarity and cooperation in the post-pandemic era. This forum is part of our efforts to implement the commitment. 

Sun Tzu, the famous strategist and philosopher of ancient China, once said that “If you know your enemy and if you know yourself, you will win all 100 of 100 battles.”  

I hope the conference today will serve as one of many occasions for us to better understand our emerging threats and to explore how best we can re-align ourselves to come up with a truly collective and effective response. 

Thank you.  /END/