열린장관실

Remarks at

Luncheon on the Occasion of the 7th Jeju Forum

By H.E. Kim Sung-Hwan

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade

The Republic of Korea

1 June 2012

Jeju Island

Former Prime Minister Paul Keating,

Secretary General Lamberto Zannier,

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you. It is indeed my great pleasure to host this luncheon for such distinguished guests gathered here for the 7th Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity.

The theme of this year’s Forum is "New Trend and Future of Asia." As these words suggest, we are seeing rapid change in the geostrategic landscape of the 21st century. Asia is assuming ever greater influence in the political, economic and cultural fields as indicated in innumerable statistics. They say that with great power comes great responsibility.

I believe that Asian countries should play a greater role to contribute to peace and prosperity in the world, and work closely together to address the common challenges that we face.

For its part, Korea, with the vision of realizing a "Global Korea," is committed to contributing more to peace and prosperity of the international community. And I would like to take this opportunity to briefly mention Korea’s efforts to this end.

First and foremost, Korea has been actively participating in the UN peacekeeping operations to maintain peace and security, and is currently taking part in the PKO missions in Lebanon and Haiti. Korea is also maintaining a PRT in Afghanistan and has pledged to provide $500 million to support stabilization and socio-economic development of Afghanistan.

Along with its efforts to address conventional security threats, Korea is also taking steps to deal with newly emerging security threats such as nuclear terrorism and cyber attacks.

I am pleased to note that the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit last March produced comprehensive and specific action plans to combat nuclear and radiological terrorism. And Korea will be hosting the Conference on Cyberspace in 2013 to contribute to the enhancement of cyber security.

To promote the shared prosperity of mankind, my government is fully committed to actively participating in international development cooperation.

As the first DAC donor coming from the ranks of recipient countries, we are faithfully fulfilling our pledge to triple the ODA budget to $3 billion or 0.25% of GNI by 2015. Our development cooperation programs are tailored to assist developing countries to achieve growth on their own. Asia is one of the priority regions for our ODA programs.

While seeking to play a greater part for a peaceful and prosperous future, we are facing security challenges from North Korea. Its nuclear and missile programs pose a grave threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, East Asia and beyond.

I would like to take this opportunity to urge North Korea to comply with its international obligations including the UN Security Council Resolutions, and return to dialogue with sincerity. North Korea should realize that any further provocations will be met with firm response from the international community.

I hope the international community will remain united as one in urging North Korea to stop provocations, change the course to step out of isolation and open itself up to the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The annual Jeju Forum has provided a good opportunity for us to collectively reflect on the present and future of peace and prosperity in Asia. I sincerely hope that this year's Forum will turn out to be another great success with your proactive participation and contribution.

On this note, I would like to propose a toast to the success of the 7th Jeju Forum and to our joint endeavors towards an Asia of ever greater peace and prosperity.

Cheers!

/End/