1. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met with Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah of Palestine on December 21 to exchange views on key issues between the Republic of Korea and Palestine and the situations on the Korean Peninsula and in the Middle East.

◦ After the meeting with the Prime Minister, Minister Yun visited the ROK’s Representative Office in Palestine and offered encouragement to its head Park Woong-chul and the other staffers, who had started work as resident members at the Office in August.

2. With regard to the relations between the ROK and Palestine, Minister Yun and Prime Minister Hamdallah noted with appreciation that the ROK’s Representative Office, opened in Palestine in August, is symbolic of the growing bilateral relations and serves as a significant institutional foundation for their further advances. The two sides agreed to move their bilateral ties further forward through the Office.

◦ Minister Yun pointed out that the ROK government places great importance on humanitarian issues facing the Middle East, particularly Palestinians, in implementing diplomacy with the Middle East in a comprehensive manner. He added that, in that respect, the ROK is providing Palestine with assistance tailored to its needs mainly through development cooperation projects in such fields as public administration, education and public healthcare.

- In response, Prime Minister Hamdallah mentioned that he still remembers the ROK’s provision of a total of some 43 million US dollars in assistance to Palestine since 1994. He added that in particular, whereas many donor countries have yet to deliver their pledges made in the wake of the conflict in the Gaza Strip this year, the ROK government has already donated two million US dollars through the UN. He extended deep appreciation to the ROK for its sincere move.

◦ On the heels of their meeting, Minister Yun and Prime Minister Hamdallah attended the signing ceremony of the record of discussions between the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Palestine’s central officials committee on the establishment of a training institute for public servants in Palestine.

3. In terms of regional situations, Minister Yun explained the situation on the Korean Peninsula. He went on to say that in order for North Korea to give up on its nuclear development, the international community, including Palestine, should work in a united manner as the North Korean nuclear issue is one that has implications for security of not only the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, but also the Middle East. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hamdallah spoke about Palestine’s position on ways to resolve its issue with Israel.

◦ The two sides agreed to communicate more closely together on key international security issues, including the North Korean nuclear issue and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

4. Palestine, one of the parties directly involved in the Israel-Palestine issue, is the ROK’s important partner for peace and stability in the Middle East. In that light, the ROK government has been increasingly boosting its diplomacy with Palestine, as demonstrated by the visit to the country in November 2013 by then Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun, the visit to the ROK by Palestine’s former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in May at the invitation of the ROK and the ROK’s dispatch of a resident Representative to Palestine in August.

◦ The first visit to Palestine by an ROK Foreign Minister in seven years is seen to carry significance as an opportunity to set a better-oriented foreign policy toward the Middle East and Palestine and reinforce the foundation for cooperation with them. 


               Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

* unofficial translation