1. On September 2-5, Deputy Minister for Political Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Yoon Soon-gu visited the Republic of Kazakhstan; paid a courtesy call on Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Beibut Atamkulov; and met with First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tileuberdi. During the two respective meetings, Deputy Minister Yoon, Foreign Minister Atamkulov and First Deputy Minister Tileuberdi exchanged in-depth views on ways to implement the follow-up measures to President Moon Jae-in’s state visit to Kazakhstan in April 2019.

2. Deputy Minister Yoon paid a courtesy call on Foreign Minister Atamkulov on Tuesday, September 3, from 17:00 to 17:50. The two sides noted with appreciation that the bilateral strategic partnership, which marks its tenth anniversary in 2019, has been substantially advancing since President Moon Jae-in’s state visit to Kazakhstan in April of this year.

○ Deputy Minister Yoon underscored the importance of cooperation with Kazakhstan, the ROK’s largest trading and investment partner in Central Asia as well as its key cooperative partner for the New Northern Policy. In addition, he expressed hope that the two countries would work closely together in order for the agreement made during President Moon’s state visit to Kazakhstan to be faithfully implemented.

○ Foreign Minister Atamkulov noted that President Moon’s state visit to Kazakhstan served as an opportunity to take the bilateral relations a notch higher, and hoped that substantive cooperation between the two countries would improve in various fields such as infrastructure and logistics in the future on the basis of bilateral relations forged by the ROK President’s state visit.

3. Following his courtesy call on Foreign Minister Atamkulov, Deputy Minister Yoon met with First Deputy Minister Tileuberdi on Tuesday, September 3, from 18:00 to 19:00. During the meeting, the two sides agreed that the two countries would work closely together for the smooth implementation of the follow-up measures to the ROK-Kazakhstan Summit held in April 2019, including the 12^th ROK-Central Asia Minister-level Cooperation Forum.

4. On September 3-4, Deputy Minister Yoon met with major figures of the ethnic Koreans in Nur-Sultan and Almaty, respectively, Kazakhstan; listened to the current state and difficulties of the ethnic Korean community; and explained the ROK government’s policies for overseas ethnic Koreans. Furthermore, he visited the Kyzylorda in Kazakhstan; laid a wreath at the tomb of General Hong Beom-do; and held a meeting with descendants of Koreans who had fought for the independence of Korea during Japan’s occupation of Korea on September 4.

5. This visit is seen to have served as an opportunity to monitor the progress in the implementation of the follow-up measures to the ROK-Kazakhstan Summit held in April this year with Kazakhstan, an important partner for the ROK’s New Northern Policy; and to share views on the way forward for the development of bilateral relations in a future-oriented manner.