외교부

Ambassador Sun Joun Yung, Vice President and CEO of the UN Association of the Republic of Korea (UNA-ROK),

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to join you today to commemorate the 65^th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.  I would like to express my deep appreciation to the UNA-ROK for all its hard work in organizing this meaningful gathering Ladies and Gentlemen,

The challenges of multiple crises such as international terrorism, pandemic diseases and climate change call for a global and collective response. This need has ushered in an era of renewed multilateralism in which collective action is not just desirable but imperative. At this auspicious gathering, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect upon the role of the UN as well as the Republic of Korea in the context of renewed multilateralism.

(Role of the UN)

Over the last six and a half decades, the UN has strived for the common good of the international community. It has played an indispensable role in resolving conflicts and consolidating peace, fighting hunger and extreme poverty, and protecting the rights of the vulnerable.

With 192 member states, the UN is uniquely positioned to meet the global challenges that no nation can address alone. Among others, priority issues tabled at the UN include the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), climate change, peacekeeping and nuclear non-proliferation.

Despite the skepticism placed on the MDGs amidst the fast approaching deadline of 2015, world leaders gathered at the MDGs Summit last month reaffirmed their commitment to the development goals. In this regard, the successful launch of the Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health is indeed encouraging, demonstrating the strong political will of the international community to meet these goals.

Climate change remains a defining challenge of our era. Building on the progress made in Copenhagen, the international community should move foward with a view to establishing a comprehensive and binding agreement in Cancun. To achieve this daunting task, the UN has to reorient its thinking and explore creative solutions that can bridge the still enormous gulf among the different positions of the major stakeholders.

On the peace and security front, UN Peacekeeping operations have played a pivotal role in the maintenance of international peace and security. Since 1999, UN peacekeeping has increased nine-fold and has become an essential part of the UN mandated activities. Consequently, the UN faces unprecedented challenges in terms of both capacity and mandates. All the responsible stakeholders must work together to ensure that peacekeeping operations are assigned clear and achievable mandates with effective and efficient management, as well as adequate resources. And the prompt and effective mechanism to preemptively prevent escalation of situations into conflicts that call for UN peacekeeping must be worked out to curb the proliferation of UN Peacekeeping.

The UN has also been at the forefront of coping with nuclear non-proliferation as well as achieving a world free of nuclear weapons. With many promising signs in and outside of the UN, including the new START Treaty, the Nuclear Security Summit and the 2010 NPT Review Conference, it is high time for the international community to redouble the efforts to strengthen global disarmament and non-proliferation regime.

(Global Korea)

As a country that owes much to the UN, Korea has embarked on a path to contributing actively to the world community. With the strong conviction that development cooperation can be a useful means for developing countries to improve their economic and social conditions, Korea has honored its commitment to triple the volume of its Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2015. Korea will also align its development policy with that of partner countries in order to enhance aid effectiveness. We will demonstrate and further this effort as the host of next year's Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4). The Korean Government will fully play its part in ensuring that this forum charts the way forward in addressing the growing global demand for effective, sustainable, green and transparent international development cooperation.

However, development cooperation alone cannot bring about poverty reduction if not coupled with enduring peace and security. Therefore, Korea has actively contributed to the United Nations peacekeeping efforts. Some 650 soldiers are currently serving in 11 peacekeeping missions, including UNIFIL in Lebanon and MINUSTAH in Haiti. Today, one of the peacekeepers has debriefed us on some of his interesting experiences. With the newly enacted "Law on Participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations", we will continue to enhance our response capacity and level of participation in the UN peacekeeping operations.

(Disarmament and Non-Proliferation)

Along with its efforts to build peace and security in the regions afflicted by conflicts and violence, the Republic of Korea is also taking steps to prevent nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists. Today, the nexus of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and terrorism poses one of the gravest threats to international security. The Republic of Korea, in a joint effort to reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism, will host the Second Nuclear Security Summit in 2012. By building on the achievements made in the Inaugural Summit last April, we believe the Seoul Summit in 2012 will present an excellent opportunity to further strengthen global nuclear security.

(G20 Seoul Summit)

In the changing global governance landscape, the convening of the G20 Seoul Summit is a major move toward better accommodating the emerging economies such as the BRICs and Korea. Korea recognizes the comparative advantages and complementarity of the UN and G20. As the chair country of the G20 this year, Korea will spare no effort to ensure that the November Summit in Seoul does indeed contribute to overcoming the financial crisis and devising post-crisis management for a strong, sustainable and balanced world economy. In addition, Korea will endeavor to enhance the legitimacy of the G20 through vigorous outreach activities with the UN.

(Situation on the Korean Peninsula)

One might say that the Republic of Korea is one of the countries that has a particularly big stake in realizing a nuclear free world given challenges posed by the North Korean nuclear issues. These challenges also pose a grave threat to the peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and the region. In this regard, the Republic of Korea remains committed to the diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. By embracing a "two track approach" that combines dialogue and sanctions in parallel, we are urging North Korea to demonstrate a sincere attitude toward denuclearization by taking concrete actions before any meaningful dialogue can resume at the Six-Party talks.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

(New Foreign Policy Response)

The renewed multilateralism requires a new foreign policy response. The emerging challenges, multiple actors, and technological advances make the policy environment ever more complex and demanding. As such, there is stronger pressure on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to become ever more creative and responsive. We will engage more fully with civil society and private sectors in pursuing a comprehensive and composite diplomacy. This clearly resonates with the vision of the UNAs of promoting a people's movement for the UN. I look forward to a broader civil society participation and partnership through the UNA-ROK in our multilateral foreign policy process.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As clearly laid down in its Constitution, the Republic of Korea has always lived up to the founding ideals of the UN. On the occasion of UN Day 2010, I would like to stress that Korea stands ready to work closely with the UN and its member states in pooling our collective wisdom and strength to tackle the daunting challenges of our time. The UN will always stay close to the heart of the Korean people as we have worked together toward a more secure, prosperous and just world.

Thank you.