1. Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul and Paula Lehtomäki, State Secretary to the Prime Minister of Finland, formally signed the Republic of Korea-Finland Agreement on Social Security at the ROK Foreign Ministry on September 9.

◦ The two countries, after launching discussions on the aforementioned Agreement in November 2013, agreed on the final text of the Agreement and initialed it in December 2014.

◦ The Agreement will take effect on the first day of the third month after the exchange between the two countries of each other’s written notices on their completion of necessary domestic procedures for its effectuation. The ROK government will make efforts to complete the relevant domestic procedures as soon as possible.

2. The ROK-Finland Agreement on Social Security, when brought into effect, will exempt Korean workers dispatched to Finland from shouldering pension insurance premiums, thereby relieving them of double pension payments. The Agreement will also enable the aggregation of the period of pension coverage in the two countries, which is expected to improve their pension entitlement.

◦ In addition to the existing bilateral agreement on air services, the bilateral investment treaty, and the bilateral agreement for the avoidance of double taxation, today’s signing of the ROK-Finland Agreement on Social Security is expected to expand the institutional foundation to boost trade, investment and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

3. The ROK government will proactively seek to conclude social security agreements with more countries in order to support Korean companies’ efforts to expand their presence overseas and to enhance pension-related convenience for Korean companies and workers dispatched overseas.


* unofficial translation