1. On December 10, the first day of the 2018 meeting of the heads of the Republic of Korea’s overseas diplomatic missions, the Foreign Minister and the mission heads attended a session for “a discussion on the innovation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” which served as an opportunity to discuss a new innovation vision that would befit the era of peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, and ways to seek innovation for building diplomatic capabilities.

2. In her opening remarks, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, the chair of the meeting, underscored the need for the Foreign Ministry to draw up “a new diplomatic vision that would contribute to peace and prosperity” amid ongoing fundamental changes in the international political landscape on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, as well as to build diplomatic capacity to a level befitting the situation; and asked the overseas missions to take an active part in these innovation efforts.

° Minister Kang also underlined the need for the overseas missions, agencies in close contact with the people, to do everything they could to protect the overseas Koreans and to reach closer to the people in a bid to conduct “diplomacy in communication with people” in the era of popular sovereignty.

3. In the session on government innovation that ensued, Minister of the Interior and Safety Kim Boo-kyum delivered a lecture on “government innovation toward an inclusive nation,” followed by a question-and-answer session with the mission heads.

° The mission heads enhanced their understanding on the direction of the government innovation efforts and discussed in depth ways to conduct main tasks for government innovation that was related to overseas missions.

4. In the second session, Deputy Foreign Minister for Planning and Coordination Yoo Dae-jong shared with the senior diplomats the progress in the Foreign Ministry’s innovation work and in the phase-2 innovation efforts; and, in particular, spoke about specific tasks to be conducted for innovation, including organizational restructuring and reorganizing the personnel management system, in response to new diplomatic demands.

° In their free discussion, the mission heads shared outstanding cases regarding the improvement in work efficiency, which all the overseas missions were seeking to achieve in a bid to strengthen the capacity of the diplomatic missions; and robustly discussed ways to reorganize the personnel management system; to align the network among the overseas missions; to improve the efficiency in the operations of the overseas missions; and to bolster work management. 

5. In the meeting, the mission heads drew a common understanding that the Foreign Ministry should strengthen its capability and innovate itself for the sake of the people and national interests of the ROK amid the grave changes in the situations at home and abroad. They also agreed to double efforts for the overseas missions to become the forefronts for national interests and servants of the people that can live up to public expectations.

* unofficial translation