1. The Republic of Korea was elected to serve on the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) for the 2019-2025 term at the UNCITRAL Member State election held by the UN General Assembly in New York on December 17.

※ The ROK has been serving as a Member State of the UNCITRAL for three consecutive times since 2004 (2004-2007, 2007-2013 and 2013-2019).

2. It used be the practice of the UNCITRAL to elect its Member States without vote after informal consultations within regional groups. Amid the lately growing attention to discussions on key issues concerning international trade law, in the latest election, nine candidate countries competed for seven seats in the Asia-Pacific group, carrying out intense campaigns until the very last minute.

° During the short period of campaign following the UNCITRAL’s sudden decision to hold the election, the ROK made all-out campaigning efforts: Among those efforts were active campaign activities in the host countries of all of its overseas diplomatic missions; active campaign activities  in New York by the Permanent Mission to the UN, including holding receptions; the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeking support from foreign diplomatic missions in the ROK and offering foreign diplomats to the ROK opportunities to visit the UNCITRAL Regional Centre; and seeking support from justice ministries of foreign countries, such as by sending letters from the Minister of Justice.

3. The (60-member) UNCITRAL was established in 1966 pursuant to a UN General Assembly resolution to promote the progressive harmonization of trade laws of different countries, to codify a unified international trade law and thereby to eliminate obstacles to international trade caused by differences in domestic laws of individual countries.

4. The ROK, as a leading country in international trade, has taken an active part in working-group and plenary meetings of the UNCITRAL, contributing to the work to create norms regarding international trade law. On January 10, 2012, the country became the host of the UNCITRAL Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific, the first UNCITRAL Regional Centre ever, and has held seminars on norms regarding international trade law in efforts to diffuse the UNCITRAL norms in the Asia-Pacific region.

5. As a Member State of the UNCITRAL, the ROK will continue taking an active part in the organization’s activities and thereby contribute to the establishment of international norms regarding international trade law. In the process, the country is expected to have its position effectively reflected in those norms.

* unofficial translation