1. An ASEAN-ROK Dialogue, a high-level meeting between the Republic of Korea and the 10-member ASEAN, will take place in Pyeongchang, northeast of Seoul, on June 3. The ASEAN-ROK Dialogue is a consultative mechanism for reviewing the progress in the ROK-ASEAN cooperation in various sectors, including political and social affairs, security, economy and culture, and discussing ways to step up cooperation. The ROK and ASEAN have held nineteen rounds of the Dialogue since forging dialogue partnership in 1989.

° The event will bring together Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Kim Hyoung-zhin from the ROK; and minister- or vice-minister-level officials from the 10 ASEAN member states, including Secretary of State Soeung Rathchavy of the Foreign Ministry of Cambodia, country coordinator for ASEAN-ROK dialogue relations. Also among the participants will be Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Political-Security Community and Ambassadors to the ROK from ASEAN countries.

2. The 20th ASEAN-ROK Dialogue will mark the beginning of the series of ASEAN-related meetings in 2016, including the ASEAN-ROK foreign ministers’ meeting in July and the bilateral summit in September. At the Dialogue, the two sides will review the progress in the follow-up measures after the ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit in 2014 and the 17th ASEAN-ROK Summit in 2015, and mainly discuss specific ways to implement the bilateral “Plan of Actions for 2016-2020,” which was adopted in 2015 as a blueprint for bilateral cooperation.

3. The ROK, having forged strategic partnership with ASEAN in 2010, has since been deepening the partnership, including by holding a forum on political affairs and security in 2014 to exchange views on regional security issues, including the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

° At the forthcoming meeting, the ROK and ASEAN, drawing upon their shared view that amid the changing situation in East Asia, the security in Northeast Asia and that in Southeast Asia are linked closely to each other, will affirm their commitment to cooperation on the North Korean nuclear issue, the biggest security threat in the region.

° In this vein, the ROK will extend appreciation to ASEAN for publicly sending a strong message to North Korea in the form of a foreign ministerial statement in response to the country’s nuclear test and launch of a long-range missile early in 2016; and for actively implementing UN Security Council 2270. The ROK will also ask ASEAN to work with the ROK in making North Korea abandon its nuclear program.

4. In order to take their relations a notch higher, the ROK and ASEAN will seek to step up people-to-people and cultural cooperation between them.

° Discussions on the “ASEAN-ROK Cultural Exchange Year 2017” event and the ASEAN Culture House, which President Park Geun-hye has pledged to hold and open, will focus on ways to increase two-way cultural exchanges. The ROK, by supporting the “people-centered ASEAN community,” will further solidify the foundation of the ROK-ASEAN cooperation.

5. The ROK, with the support of the Korea Forest Service, Gangwon-do (province), the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games, and the Korea Tourism Organization, will take the opportunity to introduce Gangwon-do and Pyeongchang to the high-level government delegations from ASEAN member states.


* unofficial translation