Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Korea is a nation that arose from the ashes of war to build the 11th largest economy

Messrs. President, Distinguished Heads of State and Government, Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Six decades ago, in the very same year that farsighted leaders from around the world were preparing to establish the United Nations, the Republic of Korea was set free from the shackles of imperialist colonial rule. Since then the United Nations has been our trusted friend.

I am privileged to stand at the podium of such a special friend on this auspicious occasion.

The United Nations has made immense achievements in promoting peace and universal values throughout the world. It is perhaps one of the greatest contrivances of the 20th century, and I pause to pay tribute to all those who have served its cause with dedication.

Messrs. President and fellow leaders,

We stand at a time of uncertainty as to how global order will unfold. But the path we must choose remains clear. The new world order of the 21st century should be defined by all nations, be they a great, small, or middle power, coexisting under shared interests to achieve collective prosperity.

This demands a redoubling of efforts to advance global projects that pursue freedom from want and discrimination, both of which lie at the heart of a number of conflicts and repressions.

Yet, there is another equally important dimension. The world must completely divest itself of mindsets and vestiges reminiscent of imperialistic tendencies that appear to linger in various forms. Vigilance against a resurgence of major-power centrism in certain circles is also in order. The leading nations of contemporary international politics should be more forthcoming in their introspection of the past and future and also exercise greater self-restraint.

In addition, enhanced efforts need to be channeled to respecting neighboring countries, forging international consensus, and removing antagonism. It is when great powers work further to embed a higher cause of peace and common prosperity in global order that the tension between power and higher cause can be defused.

The promise of such endeavors can be found in the European Union. Europe has moved beyond an order dictated by the logic of power and a system marred by animosity and strife. It now seems to be defining its place in the world as a community of peace and coexistence, reconciliation and cooperation.

It is my hope that Northeast Asia will see the realization of relations akin to those we see in Europe. For this will open an entirely new chapter in the history of Northeast Asia, which in turn will contribute to global peace and prosperity.

How we reshape the United Nations today will be a harbinger of the global order of tomorrow. We should accordingly aspire to a community that exists to serve our common interest and respects the views of member nations.

For instance, reform of the Security Council, a body that is emblematic of the leadership of the United Nations, should proceed in a manner that enhances its moral authority through democracy, accountability and efficiency. Let me stress that any reform plan we arrive at should serve to facilitate harmony among nations, rather than presage another variant of great power politics.

The enactment of such reform should assist the United Nations in overcoming the multiplicity of challenges besetting mankind and thus spearheading the realization of larger freedom.

Messrs. President and fellow leaders,

As a nation that has been fully committed to living up to the values championed by the United Nations, the Republic of Korea is prepared to do its part in contributing to peace and prosperity throughout the world.

Korea is a nation that arose from the ashes of war to build the 11th largest economy and achieve significant democratic progress. It is an achievement which came about with the support of the international community.

Consequently, it is only right that we should reciprocate by sharing this experience with fellow nations. We will work to undertake the full range of our responsibilities and roles, from tackling poverty and hunger to promoting human rights and bridging the digital divide, among others.

Korea in the World arena

In the post-Cold War era, the aim of Korea’s foreign policy has been focused on securing international support for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and devising a means to peacefully reunify the country. Economic diplomacy has been actively pursued to promote the prosperity of Korea, so that it may join the ranks of the advanced countries. Since the Asian financial crises hit at the end of 1997, the Korean government has put greater emphasis on the importance of economic diplomacy.

Historical Overview

Since its founding in 1948, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has been continuously committed to the concepts of liberal democracy and a free market economy, but its foreign relations have undergone significant changes. As the East-West confrontation evolved into a state of Cold War after World War II, the Republic of Korea pursued its foreign relations in concert with the nations of the West which advocated liberal democracy. In the years following the Korean War (1950-1953), the international community viewed Korea as a devastated, poverty-ridden nation, but that image had begun to change in the early 1960s as Korea’s newly adopted policy of export-driven economic development showed impressive high-speed economic growth.

As the East-West confrontation sharpened during the Cold War era, the Republic of Korea, regarded as a member of the Western bloc, began to expand its foreign relations by improving ties with its traditional allies and by building cooperative relations with Third World nations. The scope of its foreign relations expanded as trade ties and other economic links with these nations matured. Compared with Korea’s total trade of US$500 million in 1962, its two-way trade of US$280 billion at the end of 1997 was an astounding achievement. Despite a financial crisis that began in the late 1997, the Republic is still recognized around the world as a leading trading nation.

Since the 1970s, the diplomacy of the Republic has been designed to promote the independent and peaceful unification of the peninsula, which was tragically split in two after World War II. Its diplomats have labored hard to build a climate conducive to maintaining dialogue with North Korea. At the same time, the Republic has fortified ties with allies and actively participated in international organizations. With its diplomatic foundation firmly in place, the Republic continued throughout the 1980s to pursue cooperative partnership with all countries in every field.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, epochal changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union brought an end to the Cold War, and the Republic of Korea moved swiftly to exploit the situation by actively promoting a “Northern Diplomacy.” In 1988, Korea hosted the 24th Olympiad, unveiling a new image of the nation that had blossomed after 30 years of rapid economic development. The Seoul Olympics provided an opportunity for all nations of the world to compete in a spirit of friendship for the first time after boycotts marked two previous Games. Korea’s energetic pursuit of its Northern Diplomacy also contributed to the strengthening of its ties with former socialist nations after decades of strained relations due to the international system and ideological difference. Korea’s diplomatic relations with these countries, including the former Soviet Union and China, were normalized one after another between 1989 and 1992. As a result, Korea’s foreign relations became truly global.

South and North Korea joined the United Nations simultaneously in September 1991, crowning the success of the South’s Northern Diplomacy. Furthermore, the foundation for peaceful coexistence between the South and the North was laid in December 1991, when the two countries concluded the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression and Exchanges and Cooperation (the Basic Agreement) and the Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. These historic documents planted the seeds of peace on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia and represented a strong first step toward the peaceful unification of the divided nation.

However, there is still a long way to go to achieve meaningful progress in the South-North relations. Since the 1994 Agreed Framework, in which North Korea agreed with the United States to put its nuclear program on hold, the Kim Jong-il regime has not stopped military provocations against South Korea. Despite Pyongyang’s various economic reform plans, including projects to establish special economic zones in Sinuiju and Gaeseong, it is uncertain whether these attempts will have tangible results. Although South Korea will continuously maintain its basic line of cooperation and reconciliatory policy toward North Korea, Seoul will not be able to keep supporting North Korea if the pending military issues of nuclear weapons and missiles, conventional weapons and human rights are not properly handled.

Since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Korea has paid particular attention to enhancing economic ties not only with advanced industrialized countries, but with developing countries as well. As of March 2002, the Republic engaged in diplomatic relations with 185 nations and has maintained 91 embassies, 29 consulates and four special missions around the world. As of December 2000, Korea has become a member of 95 international organizations, 24 of which are UN agencies, as well as a multitude of nongovernmental international bodies. Today 91 permanent foreign diplomatic missions are located in Korea. Since its admission to the United Nations in September 1991, Korea has pursued membership in UN-sponsored organizations and in various UN-specialized agencies. As of May 2002, South Korea held executive membership in 38 UN bodies.

Since its founding in 1948, the Republic of Korea has been committed to the concepts of democracy and a free-market economy, but its foreign relations have undergone significant changes since its founding. As the East-West confrontation centered around the United States and the USSR evolved into a state of Cold War following World War II, the Republic of Korea pursued its foreign relations in concert with the nations of the West, who advocated democracy. In the years following the Korean War (1950-53), the international community viewed Korea as a devastated, poverty-ridden state. But that image began to change in 1962 when the Republic of Korea adopted a policy of export-driven economic development and began to actively pursue international commerce worldwide.

International Relations

As the East-West confrontation sharpened during the Cold War, the Republic of Korea, regarded as a member of the Western bloc, began to expand its foreign relations by improving ties with traditional allies and by building cooperative relations with Third-World nations. Since the 1970s, the diplomacy of the Republic of Korea has been designed to promote the independent and peaceful reunification of the peninsula. The ROK has also fortified its ties with allies and actively participated in international organizations.

With its diplomatic foundation firmly in place, the Republic of Korea continued throughout the 1980s to pursue cooperative partnerships with all countries in every field.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, epochal changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union brought an end to the Cold War, while the Republic of Korea moved swiftly to exploit the situation by actively promoting a “Northern Diplomacy.”

Korea’s energetic pursuit of the Northern Diplomacy contributed to the enhancing of its ties with former socialist countries, with whom relations had languished due to ideological and structural differences. Relations with most such countries, including the Soviet Union and China, were normalized in short order, thus enabling Korea’s foreign relations to become truly global. South and North Korea joined the United Nations simultaneously in September 1991, crowning the success of the Northern Diplomacy.

Furthermore, the foundation for peaceful coexistence between the South and North was laid in December 1991, when they concluded the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression and Exchanges and Cooperation (the Basic South-North Agreement) and the Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The Adminstrations’s Diplomatic Policy and Activiteis

These historic documents planted the seeds of peace on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia, representing an important first step toward the peaceful reunification of the divided nation.

The Republic of Korea joined the United Nations(UN) in September 1991, expanding its active participation and contribution in multilateral diplomacy commensurate with its elevated stature in the global community. In September 2001, Dr. Han Seung-soo, then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, was elected by acclamation as President of the 56th Session of the General Assembly.

Even before joining the UN, however, the Republic of Korea was active in the United Nations specialized agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as well as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and other key inter-governmental bodies.

It has also helped to launch the Goodwill Ambassadors Program adopted by the UN International Drug Control Program as part of activities for the UN Decade Against Drug Abuse. Korea hosted the 18th session of the Meeting of Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies, Asia and the Pacific, in Seoul in September 1993.

As a member of the UN, the Republic of Korea stepped up efforts to expand its global role. In 1992, the nation became a member of several important UN bodies, such as the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Commission on Human Rights and the Committee for Program and Coordination. At the 47th session of the General Assembly in October 1992, the Republic of Korea was elected to the UN Economic and Social Council, one of the principal UN organs, along with the Security Council and the General Assembly. Korea’s financial contribution to the UN regular budget, amounting to US$32 million in 2005, ranks 10th among all member states.

At the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) session in January 1993, the Republic of Korea was elected a vice-president, and also became the chairman of the ECOSOC Committee. The Republic of Korea was also elected to the Commission on Sustainable Development, a new commission established under the ECOSOC in February 1993 to coordinate and monitor the activities in the areas of environment and development.

Throughout its decade-long membership in the UN, the Republic of Korea has participated actively in major issues handled by the world body such as conflict prevention and peacekeeping missions, disarmament talks, environmental protection, development projects and human rights protection. In particular, their role as a non-permanent member in the Security Council during the 1996-1997 period provided invaluable experience through which Korea broadened its diplomatic profile. During its tenure, Korea contributed constructively in the discussions to address major regional conflicts by highlighting the problem of “political refugees.”

As a peace-loving member of the UN, Korea is committed to the maintenance of international peace and security, and is therefore actively participating in UN peacekeeping activities. Korea began by deploying a 250-personnel engineer corps to Somalia (UNOSOM II) in 1993. Since then, it deployed a 42-personnel medical unit to Western Sahara (MINURSO) in 1994 and an engineer corps of 198 personnel to Angola (UNAVEM III) in 1995. Korea has further strengthened its role in peacekeeping activities by deploying for the first time a combat infantry unit of over 400 personnel to East Timor (UNTAET). Furthermore in 2002, a Korean military officer was appointed commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

Developing countries often face serious problems because they lack experience in preparing economic plans, procuring necessary investment capital and executing the economic policies necessary for sustained economic growth. The Republic of Korea’s developmental experience, therefore, can be a model for such nations.

Korea had begun to assist developing countries already in the 1960s, when it invited small numbers of trainees and dispatched a few experts overseas. After 1975, when its economy had reached a higher level, Korea began to increase its assistance in a variety of forms: grants of machinery and materials, construction technology aid, Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) loans and direct personnel assistance, especially through a Youth Volunteer Program. The Republic of Korea also provided assistance to developing countries through multilateral organizations such as the IMF, IBRD, ADB and nearly a dozen other international financial organizations.

In April 1991, the Republic of Korea created the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to consolidate its assistance to developing countries. It provides technical and financial aid to developing countries and shares Korea¡¯s development experience and expertise. KOICA implements various cooperation programs such as dispatching medical doctors, industry experts, taekwondo instructors and other volunteers, inviting trainees to Korea and assisting non-governmental organizations. KOICA contributes to enhancing Korea¡¯s image through establishing cooperative relationships with developing countries. Korea contributed US$334 million in Official Development Aid (ODA) in 2003.

The Republic of Korea is committed to the pursuit of cultural exchanges with foreign countries to enhance bilateral friendship and understanding and to contribute to global reconciliation and cooperation. The nation also seeks to introduce Korean traditional art and culture abroad, and supports overseas Korean studies programs as well as numerous academic conferences and athletic exchanges. The Korea Foundation, established in 1991, coordinates and supports international cultural exchange programs.

Outlook for the future

South Korea presents something of a paradox in terms of security risk. The ironically named Demilitarized Zone that separates the Republic of Korea (south) from the Democratic People Republic of Korea (north) remains the world most militarized frontier. The 1950-53 Korean War is technically not over-there is an armistice, but no peace treaty yet-and 37,000 U.S. troops remain in South Korea. However, this has little impact on economic activities. Even the occasional skirmishes, such as a brief inter-Korean naval battle in June 1999, is rare enough to not affect stock prices, much less induce general panic. Moreover, such incidents are rare, and most have swiftly been resolved rather than escalating, implying a tacit desire by both the North and South not to let hostilities get out of hand. That said, it would be foolish to underestimate the continuing potential for armed conflict, the consequences of which would be severe. If the North retreats into its shell on the pretext of the U.S. Bush administration hawkish line, tensions are more likely to rise than to fall in the years ahead.

Adding to tensions are heightened U.S. concerns, in the aftermath of September 11th, of North Korea possession of weapons of mass destruction. In late November 2001 the U.S. President condemned both Iraq and North Korea for their development of weapons of mass destruction; the U.S. administration has also named North Korea as one of the five nations suspected of developing biological weapons. Pyongyang refuses to let the International Atomic Energy Agency probe the country full nuclear history-which almost certainly includes the extraction of plutonium to make weapons. Without full plutonium accounting, the two light-water reactors to be supplied under the 1994 Agreed Framework cannot go ahead. In addition, there has been little support in the Bush administration or in Congress for continuing the eight-year-old oil assistance program following North Korea acknowledgment in October 2002 that it was secretly developing a uranium-based bomb. The fate of the shipments is in the hands of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), whose members are South Korea, the United States, Japan, and the European Union.

North Korea is on the U.S. State Department list of nations regarded as sponsoring terrorism. In 1999 the charge-sheet included contacts with Osama bin Laden, now Washington chief suspect in the September 11th attacks. This is not mentioned in the latest U.S. State Department report of April 2001-the mere seven lines on North Korea focus mainly on Pyongyang continued harboring of Japanese Red Army hijackers since 1970 and its selling of weapons directly or indirectly to terrorist groups in the Philippines. North Korea has been seeking removal from the list for in the last decade (unlike previous ones) there has been no hard evidence of its hand in terrorism, and the country condemned the September 11th attacks.

North Korea has never recognized the legitimacy of South Korea and still claims to be the rightful representative of all Koreans. It has never abandoned the strategy of unification by force put into effect in 1950. South Korea, for its part, proclaims the ideal of peaceful unification, and could not afford to abandon it, since there are still today millions of Koreans separated from immediate members of their families by the war in 1950-53.

Although it could be argued that the narrowing of the military gap between the two Koreas presents the North Korean proponents of blitzkrieg with a “now or never” option, “never” has seemed the more likely outcome than “now” since the death of Kim Il-sung, North Korea supreme leader, in 1994.

However, the South Korean government undoubtedly fears what is probably the most likely scenario for the unification of the peninsula: the implosion of the North Korean regime in circumstances that virtually compel South Korea to absorb the North by invitation. North Korea is having great difficulty in feeding its people. Its international credit is exhausted, not least with its former mentors in Russia. Its industry is obsolete, its exports negligible, and its economy crippled by a perceived need to outweigh South Korea militarily. The collapse of the regime is a real possibility.

This may force South Korea to take on burdens of reconstruction relatively greater than those assumed by West Germany when it absorbed East Germany. The cost to South Korea of such absorption would, however, be huge-as high as US$1.2 trillion according to South Korea 21st Century Committee. The South Korean government preferred option, therefore, is to try to avert the collapse of North Korea politically by propping it up economically, while seeking military and diplomatic detente.

Meanwhile, South Korea is quietly making contingency plans for unification which, it is hoped, will avoid West Germany mistakes (immediate currency unification and early wage rate equalization, leading to mass unemployment in the east and huge budgetary problems in the west), while seizing the economic opportunity to establish low-cost, labour-intensive export industries in North Korea (as an alternative to locating them in China or Vietnam).

More than anything else, however, the utmost imminent and important thing for South Korea is to resolve the security threat caused by North Korea nuclear program and to institutionalize confidence-building measures on the Korean Peninsula. To do so, close coordination with the United States, Japan, China, and Russia should be sought.

(Source: KOREA.NET a gateway to Korea)