1. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will visit the Republic of Korea from November 1 till 3, marking the second of its kind by a NATO Secretary-General after the one in April 2013 by then NATO Secretary-General Rasmussen. During his visit to the ROK, the Secretary-General will pay a courtesy call on President Moon Jae-in, attend a working luncheon to be hosted by National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun, and hold a meeting with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha.

° Also included in the Secretary-General’s schedule in the ROK are laying a wreath at a National Cemetery, visiting the truce village of Panmunjeom, attending a roundtable to be hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, and holding a press conference for local and foreign correspondents.

※ Secretary-General Stoltenberg paid a visit to the ROK in March 2012 during his service as Prime Minister of Norway to attend a Nuclear Security Summit and another during his service as Minister of Industry from 1993 till 1996.

2. NATO is widely known as the most successful collective security mechanism that, through strong deterrence, contributed to post-war peace and stability in Europe as well as to the end of the Cold War. After ROK having forged formal cooperative relations with NATO by becoming one of its Global Partners in 2006, the two sides have since been stepping up cooperation in various areas, including the North Korean nuclear issue, cyber security and support for Afghanistan’s stabilization efforts.

3. During the NATO Secretary-General’s visit to the ROK, the two sides will extensively discuss ways to step up substantive bilateral cooperation on such new security issues as those in cyber space, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and terrorism response. In particular, the two sides will revise the bilateral “Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme (IPCP),” the basic framework of bilateral cooperation concluded in 2012, thereby further reinforcing the global partnership between them.

4. With regard to the North Korean nuclear issue, NATO has coordinated closely with the ROK, as can be seen from NATO having issued a strongly-worded statement of condemnation in response to each and every nuclear and missile provocation by North Korea, including the Secretary-General’s statement dated September 3 on the sixth nuclear test by the North. During Secretary-General Stoltenberg’s visit to the ROK, the two sides will discuss in depth the North Korean nuclear and missile issues as well as the situation in Northeast Asia.

5. The NATO Secretary-General’s visit to the ROK, which will come amid the graver-than-ever situation on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test and missile provocations, is expected to serve as an opportunity to step up ROK-NATO coordination on North Korean issues and to enhance the bilateral future-oriented cooperative ties.


* unofficial translation