1. On March 30, the first day of their 2015 meeting, the chiefs of overseas diplomatic missions held a meeting on “global multi-faceted diplomacy,” which consisted of a lecture by Chung Chong-wook, civilian Vice Chairman of the Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation, and five sub-group discussions on ways to implement global trustpolitik in order to usher in a unification era.

◦ The topics of the sub-group discussions were the North Korean nuclear issue; international humanitarian cooperation; improving the security environment through multilateral diplomacy; the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative and the Eurasia Initiative; and international cooperation on development and healthcare.

2. The chiefs of overseas missions had in-depth sub-group discussions on the key tasks for unification diplomacy and ways to win cooperation from the international community in implementing them. Having gained a strategic and balanced perspective from the discussions, they are expected to make utmost efforts to implement “global multi-faceted diplomacy” in order to usher in a unification era.

◦ With regard to the North Korean nuclear issue, the high-level diplomats, sharing the view that proactive efforts are necessary to make progress on the issue amid the changing situations on the Korean Peninsula and in its surrounding region, agreed to make efforts toward the resumption of meaningful denuclearization talks, while maintaining pressure on North Korea.

◦ In terms of humanitarian issues concerning North Korea, including humanitarian assistance to the country and reunions of families separated during the Korean War, the mission chiefs underscored the need to work more closely with the UN and other international organizations in a bid to resolve them. They went on to discuss a variety of specific ways to do so, including establishing consultative mechanisms with relevant international organizations and strengthening partnership with NGOs at home and abroad.

◦ The diplomats shared the view that with the year 2015 marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the UN, the ROK should muster and use its capabilities to make the UN and other multilateral mechanisms favorable toward the ROK’s unification policy and solving the North Korean issues.

◦ In terms of the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative and Eurasia Initiative, -- the bases of the ROK’s “trustpolitik” -- the high-level officials assessed that the ROK, through active summit diplomacy, had won international understanding on and support for the policies. They agreed to carry out diplomacy in a way that makes tangible progress on the policies and accelerates their implementation.

◦ With regard to development cooperation with and humanitarian assistance to foreign countries, the mission chiefs agreed on the need to expand diplomacy in those fields and discussed ways for the ROK to become “a country that contributes constructively to the international community,” including seeking out creative and frontier fields for assistance.

3. The Foreign Ministry will implement the measures agreed upon at the meeting, playing an active role in ushering in a unification era on the Korean Peninsula. 


               Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

* unofficial translation