1. Second Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul attended the World Journalist Conference 2015, which brought together about 100 journalists from some 60 countries around the world, and gave a lecture under the theme “changing geopolitical dynamics in Northeast Asia and the future of the Korean Peninsula.”

2. In his lecture, Vice Minister Cho Tae-yul explained the diplomatic and security environment in Northeast Asia and challenges faced by the ROK’s diplomacy, and stated that one of the challenges is geopolitical change in Northeast Asia created by the rapid rise of China. He also pointed out that Japan’s historical revisionism is exacerbating the already complicated global political landscape and that the conflict between Russia and the West in the aftermath of the Ukrainian crisis is posing another great challenge to the ROK’s diplomacy. He explained that a bigger challenge to the ROK’s diplomacy than the three challenges mentioned above is North Korea, which has yet to give up its nuclear ambitions and has been continuing to heighten tension on the Korean Peninsula, refusing to engage in dialogue.

3. Furthermore, Vice Minister Cho highlighted the need to overcome the security challenges in Northeast Asia with the vision and strategy envisioned in the ROK’s Trustpolitik and to create an environment conducive to reunification of the Korean Peninsula. He stressed that the Park Geun-hye government will pursue Trustpolitik based on three principles: a balance between peace-keeping and peace-making, a unification policy focusing on improving quality of people’s life, and reunification that contributes to humanity as a whole. The Vice Minister also presented a vision that Korea’s reunification is not a mere dream, but a future that the Korean people are committed to realizing.

4. Considering that the World Journalist Conference can be a good opportunity to raise the awareness of foreign journalists about the ROK, the Foreign Ministry has provided lectures at the event every year since 2013 to explain the ROK government’s foreign policies and administrative priorities. 


              Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

*unofficial translation