1. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, at the invitation of US Secretary of State John Kerry, will attend the foreign ministerial Conference on Global Leadership in the Arctic: Cooperation, Innovation, Engagement and Resilience (GLACIER), which will take place in Anchorage, Alaska, the US, on August 30 and 31.

◦ As the first Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea to attend an Arctic-related international meeting, Minister Yun will deliver remarks, introducing the ROK’s Arctic policy and explaining measures that the country plans to take to enhance the connectivity in Eurasia through the Arctic as part the ROK’s Eurasia Initiative.

◦ Furthermore, Minister Yun will underscore the need for international responses to Arctic climate change, one of the key agenda items of the conference; introduce the ROK’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals submitted to the UN in June as an example of the ways the ROK is contributing in that regard; and reaffirm support for the success of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in December.

2. The conference will come as the US, which became the chair country of the Arctic Council in May, has invited foreign ministers of the eight member countries and the twelve observer countries of the Arctic Council to the event to: a. raise awareness on Arctic issues as one of the major global issues; b. exert leadership in the field, including in seeking Arctic-related priorities at national and international levels; and c. increase attention to climate change.

◦ Out of the twenty countries that will attend the meeting, ten, including the ROK, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France and Italy, will send their foreign ministers, while the other ten countries will dispatch high-level officials.

◦ In particular, US President Barack Obama will attend the closing ceremony of the conference on August 31 to call for international attention to the Arctic and to voice willingness to address climate change.

* The ROK acceded to the Arctic Council in May 2013 as a permanent observer.

3. Minister Yun will also have bilateral meetings with his counterparts from member countries of the Nordic Council. In the bilateral meetings, the ROK will strengthen cooperative networks with Nordic countries through in-depth discussions on ways to step up substantive cooperation at the bilateral level, including on the Arctic, and on the international stage.

◦ The Nordic Council is a consultative mechanism separate from the Arctic Council and is composed of five member states -- the Northern European countries of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. These countries carry special significance as major partners for cooperation in developing Arctic routes for the fulfillment of the ROK government’s Eurasia Initiative, connecting Europe and Asia.

◦ Minister Yun held the first-ever ROK-Nordic foreign ministers’ meeting with foreign or vice foreign ministers from the five Nordic countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in September 2014, building a channel for all-out cooperation with those countries. Going forward, the ROK will strengthen cooperative networks with the Nordic countries by building upon the outcome of such meetings.

4. Minister Yun will take the opportunity of the Arctic-related foreign ministerial conference to not only inform the international community of the ROK government’s efforts and contributions toward the “development and preservation of the Arctic” but also step up substantive cooperation with countries in the Arctic region, which is expected to lay the groundwork for the ROK’s presence in the Arctic.

◦ Furthermore, the ROK will explore the possibility of developing maritime routes, using the Northern Sea routes, in addition to overland routes, which were identified through the “Eurasia Express” project in July. By doing so, it is expected to gain support from the international community for the ROK’s Eurasia Initiative, whose aim is to enhance multilateral connectivity, as well as draw cooperation from relevant countries in that regard.

* In July, Minister Yun invited about 50 diplomats to the ROK from member and observer countries of the Arctic Council to an event held on the Araon to mark the second anniversary of the ROK’s accession to the Arctic Council.

5. On the sidelines of the GLACIER conference, Minister Yun will meet bilaterally with US Secretary John Kerry. In their meeting, they will consult with each other on ways to respond to and collaborate on future provocations by North Korea in the aftermath of North Korea’s landmine and artillery-firing provocations. They will also discuss in depth the situations on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia; the main diplomatic events of the two countries scheduled for the second half of this year, including President Park Geun-hye’s visit to the US in October; and ways to work together on global issues and other matters of mutual concern.


* unofficial translation