Press Briefing

Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Affairs Soosuk Lim

June 13, 2023  14:30  KST

Good afternoon. Let me start today’s briefing.

A signing ceremony of a letter of intent for cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Korea Forest Service (KFS) will be held this afternoon at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin and KFS Minister Nam Sung-Hyun will sign the letter of intent on behalf of the two organizations.

This year, MOFA and KFS, together with UNICEF Korea, are conducting a global reforestation campaign to respond to the climate crisis, called "Plant Our Planet (POP)." 

The POP campaign is a metaverse-reality linking campaign in which around 30 million people from about 220 countries have participated so far. In this campaign, if participants plant trees in the metaverse, tree-planting events take place in the real world.

Through the signing of the letter of intent, MOFA and KFS are expected to cooperate more closely, especially regarding the POP campaign.

Next, Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin will deliver opening remarks at an academic conference on Korea’s election as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and its role in the UN, which will be held at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA) on June 15.

This conference has been organized to evaluate the significance of Korea’s election as a non-permanent UNSC member for the 2024-25 term and its roles, and to discuss the direction of its future activities.

The conference will feature welcome remarks by KNDA Chancellor Park Cheol-Hee, congratulatory remarks by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President of the UN Association of the ROK Kwak Young-hoon, and encouragement speeches by former Foreign Ministers Yoon Young-kwan, Song Min-soon and Yun Byung-se. Following them, there will be discussion sessions involving former UN Ambassadors and scholars.

(A question-and-answer session followed.)