외교부

Mr. Chairman,

At the outset, I would like to join others in thanking Mme. Maria Luiza Viotti, Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary-General and Mr. Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Chair of the ACABQ, for introducing their respective reports.

As this is my first appearance at the Fifth Committee, I would also like to take this opportunity to commend your leadership, Mr. Chairman, and the members of your Bureau for the proactive and efficient management of the programme of work during this very important resumed session covering peacekeeping budgets as well as the Secretary-General’s reform initiatives.

Mr. Chairman,

Guided by the strong leadership of Secretary-General Guterres, during the past year, we have been carefully deliberating his proposals to restructure the UN peace and security architecture so that the UN can prioritize prevention and sustaining peace and improve mandate delivery in the field.

The Secretary-General has laid out, by and large, three main proposals to achieve this: first, creating a single regional political-operational structure to be shared by the proposed DPPA and DPO; second, empowering PBSO to play a “hinge role” across the pillars; and third, providing more dedicated support to field operations, which will be deliberated later under the management reform track.

We, as Member States, have been providing strong political support to the Secretary-General’s vision, given the sense of urgency of addressing today’s multifaceted global challenges including, among others, the proliferation of conflicts and humanitarian crises around the world.

We adopted a series of General Assembly resolutions showing support for his vision, which was reaffirmed at the High-Level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace convened by the President of the General Assembly last month. More than 50 heads of state and ministers participated in the meeting to highlight the importance of the UN system becoming more effective in preventing conflicts and sustaining peace. 

The Republic of Korea also welcomes and supports the reform proposals of the Secretary-General, especially those measures to strengthen linkages across the reform pillars and thereby increase synergies among different parts of the UN system. We believe that this holistic approach should be fully and effectively integrated in the peace and security architecture, with provision of additional capacities, where needed.

As the Fifth Committee begins its consideration of this important agenda item, I hope that the Committee will not lose sight of the bigger picture of why we are pushing these much needed reforms forward. The deliberations should be more focused on how to effectively reallocate or replenish, if necessary, resources to ensure stronger synergies among the different pillars, especially through enhancing the hinge role of PBSO, rather than technical details confined to administrative and budgetary implications. The review exercise of this Committee should result in a less bureaucratic and more efficient UN that would strengthen its very credibility and effectiveness.

Finally, we look forward to seeing a robust change management process in place to ensure that the reform proposals approved by the General Assembly are on track and meet their intended purposes.

Mr. Chairman,

Peace and security reform is the first agenda item of the three reform pillars that was brought to this Committee for its consideration. I hope our discussion in the coming days will create positive momentum for the deliberation of other reform initiatives.

I can assure you that the Republic of Korea will constructively engage with all Member States in discussions on peace and security architecture reform as well as other reform proposals to follow.

Thank you.