1. The Foreign Ministry hosted the sixth High-Level Forum on the Korea-Caribbean Partnership on October 26 under the theme of “Enhancing Korea-Caribbean Partnership on Climate Change and Food Security.”

2. In Session 1 on “Enhancing Korea-Caribbean Partnership on Climate Change,” the participants from the Caribbean, expressing concern over steadily growing damage from climate change to the Caribbean, voiced hope to work with the Republic of Korea in responding to climate change and preventing natural disasters.

3. In Session 2 on “Enhancing the Korea-Caribbean Partnership on Food Security,” the participants noted that natural disasters caused by climate change are severely undermining the agricultural productivity in the Caribbean and hence the food security in the region. As a way to improve food security in the Caribbean, they proposed working together in breeding better varieties of agricultural products and sharing with one another knowhow for small-scale smart farming.

4. On October 25, Director-General for Korean Peninsula Peace Regime Kim Yong-hyon of the Foreign Ministry briefed the forum’s high-level participants on the situation on the Korean Peninsula. The Director-General called North Korea’s repeated provocations, including the nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, a grave threat to not only the Korean Peninsula and but also the entire international community; underscored the importance of the international community sending a consistent, united message to North Korea in order to induce changes in the North’s behavior; and asked for support and cooperation of the Caribbean countries in this regard.

° Director-General Kim brought renewed attention to the fact that the North Korean regime is channeling its scarce resources to nuclear tests and missile launches in disregard of the human rights and livelihoods of North Korean people; explained the efforts of the ROK government and the international community to improve the human rights situation in North Korea; and asked the Caribbean countries to pay attention to North Korea’s human rights issues.

5. The ROK government has implemented multi-level, systemic diplomacy toward Latin America and the Caribbean in 2016, including by holding the “2016 Korea-Latin America Partnership: Towards a Shared Vision for Future Cooperation” event in June, a seminar on the ROK-Latin America cooperation on public security in September and a High-Level Forum on the Korea-Caribbean Partnership. Going forward, the ROK government will put in place various forms of mechanisms to step up cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean on matters of mutual concern.


* unofficial translation