Dinner Remarks
by H.E. Yun Byung-se
Minister of Foreign Affairs

2015 OSCE Asian Conference
Seoul, June 1, 2015

Deputy Prime Minister Tanasak,
Secretary-General Zannier,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Over the past two weeks, Korea has been the stage of some significant bilateral and multilateral diplomacy.
 From Secretary Kerry, Indian Prime Minister Modi, UN Secretary-General Ban and the heads of numerous UN agencies;
 To the World Education Forum, the Jeju Forum and the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of MIKTA – a cross-regional group of Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey and Australia.

In this respect, I am very pleased that Korea is the host country for the 2015 OSCE Asian Conference. I understand that today, you’ve had truly excellent debates and discussions on dealing with the challenges we face.

The OSCE can justly be proud of its historic achievements, from the Helsinki Final Act onwards. It was the harbinger of the seismic transitions – the détente of the 1970s and the end of the Cold War in 1990s – but also seized those moments to realize and push forward its vision.

Now, our world is going through another great transformation. I have been speaking about this phenomenon for some time, but this January in Davos, I could really feel that geopolitics is the hot topic – and not only during my debate sessions with other leaders. Global CEOs also spoke about how factoring in geopolitics is part of due diligence now.

As I spoke this morning, Northeast Asia is also becoming an epicenter of such geopolitical shifts in several aspects. In a sense, we are at the crossroads between centrifugal forces and centripetal forces – or you could even say, between cooperation and harmony versus tension and conflict.

For us, the choice is very clear: Korea is decisively on the side of cooperation and harmony. But like they say, the devil is in the details: the question of “how” to respond is crucial.

For my part, I believe that the more daunting the challenge, the bolder and more practical the response should be. To this end, we have been working hard on the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative, or NAPCI, and on laying the groundwork for Korean unification.

So today, I was very pleased that you had a special session to look at the Initiative in more detail and discuss how to tap into the OSCE’s experience. Let me emphasize that NAPCI, which has branched out from our signature policy of Trustpolitik, is not just about functional collaboration, but also a practical strategy for building confidence. As such, it is on the same wavelength with the OSCE’s comprehensive approach to security. This is why we are collaborating so closely with the OSCE, and other partners as well, such as the EU and ASEAN.

And tomorrow, I know many of you will visit the DMZ. That place is only a 40-minute drive away from Seoul, and a popular tourist destination. But it is, in fact, a visible symbol of a divided Korea. Across that line live 25 million people in utter misery, isolated from the rest of the world.

So, I hope that the trip will wake you up to the harsh realities of our divided peninsula. But even more than that, I hope you will be able to open your eyes to the great possibilities Korean unification will bring to us all:
 A stabilizer and peace promoter – resolving North Korea’s nuclear and missile problems, as well its human rights violations.
 A growth booster – for East Asia and the world.
 And a catalyst for connecting the Eurasian continent, from east to west.
In closing my remarks, I count on each and every one of you – for your leadership, ownership and partnership – as we work together to build up peace and trust, on the Korean peninsula, in this region and around the world. Thank you. /끝/