1. On October 30, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade & Commerce of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, and the Minister of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica, who were on a visit to the Republic of Korea for “the 8th High-Level Forum on the Korea-Caribbean Partnership.”

※ The High-Level Forum on the Korea-Caribbean Partnership is a high-level dialogue mechanism designed to increase substantive cooperation between the ROK and the Caribbean. The theme of its forthcoming 8th round on October 31 will be ““Korea-Caribbean cooperative partnership for peace and security.”

2. Minister Kang, taking note of the advances in relations between the ROK and the Caribbean countries, the ROK’s traditional friends that have worked closely with the country on the international stage, voiced hope that going forward, the ROK and the Caribbean countries will see their cooperative ties expand in a mutually beneficial way in various areas, including climate change and development cooperation.

° Minister Kang also conveyed hope that discussions on peace and security -- main areas of interest of the two regions -- at the upcoming High-Level Forum on the Korea-Caribbean Partnership will help take the friendly ties between the two regions to the next level.

° The foreign and vice foreign ministers of the three Caribbean countries, in view of the ROK-Caribbean High-Level Forum as a significant mechanism for cooperation between the two regions, agreed to work more closely with the ROK on international stages, including the United Nations and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

3. Minister Kang explained the outcome of the third inter-Korean summit held in Pyeongyang in September and the current situation on the Korean Peninsula; and asked for robust support of the Caribbean countries for the ROK government’s efforts toward complete denuclearization and the establishment of permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

° The foreign and vice foreign ministers of the three Caribbean countries, commending the series of efforts made by the ROK government to build peace on the Korean Peninsula, agreed to work closely with the ROK to that end.

4. The meeting is seen to have served as an opportunity to explain to and win support from the Caribbean countries on the ROK government’s efforts to build peace on the Korean Peninsula; and to further enhance cooperative ties on the bilateral and multilateral levels with the Caribbean region, which has a high growth potential.

* unofficial translation