1. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha held a working dinner with Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian of France on February 10. Over the dinner, the two top diplomats exchanged a wide range of views on the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, ways to step up substantive cooperation between the Republic of Korea and France, situations on the Korean Peninsula and in other parts of the world, and global issues.

° Minister Le Drian, in his capacity as special envoy of French President Macron and accompanied by Minister of Sports Laura Flessel, is on a visit to the ROK from February 9 till 11 to attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

2. Minister Le Drian relayed French President Macron’s message of hope for the success of the Pyeongchang sporting event. Expressing appreciation in response, Minister Kang voiced hope that France, a winter sports powerhouse, will reap good results at the PyeongChang Olympics and successfully host the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

※ France, a winter sports powerhouse and three-time host of the Winter Olympics, has dispatched some 100 athletes to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

° Minister Le Drian noted with appreciation that the accession of the ROK to the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) in November 2016 as an observer and the conclusion of an agreement between the OIF and the PyeongChang Organizing Committee led to the promotion of the use of French, the official language of the Olympic Games, at the Pyeongchang event.

※ The OIF, founded to promote democracy, the rule of law, human rights, culture and dialogue as well as to revive economy in French-speaking countries, is comprised of some 80 countries.

- The ROK joined the body in 2016 as an observer, which marked the first by a Northeast Asian country.

※ The OIF and the PyeongChang Organizing Committee concluded in March 2017 a memorandum of understanding on the use of the French language during the PyeongChang Olympic Games.

※ OIF Secretary-General Michaelle Jean is on a visit to the ROK from February 7 till 12 to attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and to co-host with the Swiss President a “Francophonie night” event on February 10.

3. The two Ministers took note of growing cooperation in economy, national defense, education, science and diverse other sectors between the ROK and France, the best cooperative partners on regional and global issues. They agreed to seek reciprocal visits by the two countries’ Presidents and other high-level exchanges; and to hold the annual foreign ministerial strategic dialogue in a bid to strengthen the bilateral relations.

° The two top diplomats, noting with appreciation the growing bilateral trade as well as investment mainly in such new growth areas as information technology (IT) and startups, agreed to step up substantive cooperation in various fields, including high-tech industries, science, technology, aerospace and energy, in order to create jobs and expand growth engines.

※ The two-way trade volume stood at 8.7 billion US dollars in 2017, up from 8.3 billion US dollars in 2016. The ROK posted 2.97 billion US dollars in exports to France and 5.75 billion US dollars in imports from France in 2017.

※ France’s investment in the ROK stood at 273 million US dollars in September 2017, up from 194 million US dollars in 2016. Meanwhile, the ROK’s investment in France amounted to 64 million US dollars in September 2017, down from 166 million US dollars in 2016.

° The two top diplomats noted that the French Embassy building in the ROK, which had been designed by the late architect Kim Jung-eop to represent the essence of Korean and French architecture and later been renovated many times, will carry significance as a symbol of the ROK-France relations if it is restored to its original form by 2019 as planned.

4. Minister Kang shared with her French counterpart the ROK government’s ceaseless efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue and build peace on the Korean Peninsula. She went on to say that the ROK government will continue diplomatic efforts for the momentum of inter-Korean dialogue built around the time of the PyeongChang Olympics to lead to US-North Korea and various other forms of dialogue on ways to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.

° Minister Le Drian, expressing full support for the ROK government’s policy toward North Korea, hailed the inter-Korean dialogue that had been resumed days before the PyeongChang Olympics; voiced hope that the momentum for peace on the Korean Peninsula will remain in place even after the Pyeongchang sporting event; and suggested that the ROK and France continue close coordination and consultations with each other to seek ways to induce North Korea to make the right choice regarding denuclearization.

5. The two Ministers agreed to further step up cooperation between the ROK and France, partners sharing universal values, on climate change and other major global issues.

6. The meeting between the ROK and French Foreign Ministers, the second between them following the second round of the ROK-France foreign ministerial strategic dialogue held in Paris in October 2017, is seen to have served as an opportunity to discuss in depth bilateral, regional and global issues, including the North Korean nuclear program, and to have thereby contributed to the efforts to beef up the ROK-France “comprehensive partnership for the 21st century.”

* unofficial translation