South Korea, 2003

I

should like first of all to express my heartiest

congratulations to Mr. Julian Hunte on his election as

President of the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth

session. I have no doubt that, under his able

stewardship, we will be able to achieve a great deal

during this important session. I should also like to

thank Mr. Jan Kavan for his dedication and hard work

during the last session.

The past year has witnessed the fall of a decades-

long dictatorship in Iraq. The Iraqi people have

regained their freedom and are now embarking upon

the arduous process of rebuilding their nation.

However, the auspicious political changes brought on

in Iraq will hold real meaning for the Iraqi people and

the regional order only once they are able to enjoy the

social economic benefits of a broadly based functional

democratic Government. To that end, the Republic of

Korea is now playing its part in the process of

rehabilitation and reconstruction.

38

The situation in today's Iraq is, however, less

than promising. The recent surge of terror and chaos

has served as a sobering reminder that winning the war

does not necessarily mean winning peace.

As the terrorist attack against the United Nations

headquarters in Baghdad last month so vividly

demonstrated, the prevalence of violence and terrorism

poses the most pressing challenge that Iraq has to

overcome in building a democratic, peaceful and

prosperous nation. The Republic of Korea strongly

condemns the atrocious act of terrorism against United

Nations personnel who came to Iraq for the sole

purpose of assisting the Iraqi people.

We recommend that the Secretary-General take

the necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of

the United Nations and its associated personnel, as well

as international humanitarian workers in Iraq, as they

carry out their noble duties.

Despite the persistence of conflict and turmoil,

the international community has continued during the

past year to make progress in strengthening the

universal values of human rights and democracy. The

spread of universal values in turn strengthens the

foundation for peace and prosperity around the world.

However, a world in which all peoples enjoy their

full rights and dignity is far from being a reality. We

need to make concerted efforts to promote human

dignity as the guiding precept of the world community.

The Republic of Korea remains firmly committed

to international efforts to advance democracy around

the world. In this vein, Seoul hosted the Second

Ministerial Conference of the Community of

Democracies in November last year, as well as the

Third Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and

Safeguarding Integrity in May this year. We will

continue to actively participate in efforts to promote

human rights, the rule of law and good governance.

The challenges facing us include fighting poverty

and achieving sustainable development. Poverty

undermines human dignity. It provides fertile ground

for conflict and dictatorship. The need for international

cooperation in this area has never been greater.

It is therefore tremendously important to achieve

the goals set at last year's International Conference on

Financing for Development and the World Summit on

Sustainable Development. The international community

must exercise collective wisdom to attain tangible results

in working toward these goals.

In recent years, the growing number of people

moving freely across borders has alerted us to the

increasing threats to public health. As demonstrated by

the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome epidemic,

infectious diseases have become a global issue from

which no country is immune. It is timely and fitting

that a high-level meeting was held earlier this week on

the follow-up to the outcome of the twenty-sixth

special session of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS.

In our common fight against infectious diseases, I

would like to call your attention to the International

Vaccine Institute, which has been headquartered in

Seoul since 1997. This unique international

organization, devoted to the development of new

vaccines needed in developing countries, awaits the

support of the international community as it continues

to expand its activities to promote public health for the

less privileged of the world.

On the global security front, the proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and its

potentially devastating linkage to terrorism loom as a

grave and perilous threat. The global nuclear non-

proliferation regime based on the Nuclear Non-

Proliferation Treaty (NPT) currently faces

unprecedented challenges.

How we deal with these challenges will have a

decisive bearing on the future of not only the non-

proliferation regime, but also the international security

environment as a whole. Recent cases have proven that

the existing nuclear non-proliferation regime has

inherent limitations when it comes to dealing with

determined proliferators.

While reiterating the importance of achieving the

universality of the NPT and strengthening the

safeguards system through universal adherence to the

Additional Protocol to the Safeguards Agreements of

the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), we

underscore the need to close the loopholes in the

current regime.

In this regard, we stress the vital role of bilateral,

multilateral and regional approaches among countries

sharing common security interests in the reinforcement

and supplementing of the NPT. The role of export control

arrangements among potential suppliers of relevant

components and technologies for WMD is also crucial.

39

To that end, my Government hosted a plenary

meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group last May and

will also host a plenary meeting of the Missile

Technology Control Regime next year.

We further believe that the nuclear-weapon States

can do a great service to the cause of non-proliferation

by complying with their share of the nuclear

disarmament obligations under the NPT and by

working harder to achieve the early entry into force of

the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

The security of North-East Asia is currently

threatened by the possibility of the proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction. The Democratic People's

Republic of Korea's nuclear programme not only poses

a direct challenge to the security of the Korean

peninsula, but also endangers peace and stability in

North-East Asia and beyond. The Republic of Korea is

strongly committed to the denuclearization of the

Korean peninsula, and our position on the nuclear issue

in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea remains

clear and consistent.

First, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

must dismantle its nuclear programme in a complete,

irreversible and verifiable manner. Secondly, the

nuclear issue with the Democratic People's Republic of

Korea must be resolved in a peaceful and diplomatic

manner.

The heightening of military tension on the Korean

peninsula will be detrimental to all of the countries in

the region. Fifty years after the end of the Korean War,

our people still feel the pain. We must not allow such a

tragedy ever to be repeated.

By opting to combine efforts to resolve this

matter peacefully and diplomatically, the international

community has shown great wisdom in dealing with

this pressing and important matter. These efforts were

culminated in the six-party talks held in Beijing last

month.

Given the complexity of the issue, the multilateral

talks were significant, in that all participants were able

to reach consensus on certain principles that will guide

their future discussions.

Among these principles my Government

welcomes, in particular, the consensus on the necessity

of both the de-nuclearization of the peninsula and a

peaceful resolution through dialogue.

The tasks ahead will be to maintain the

momentum of dialogue and to refine these agreed

principles in greater detail. There will indeed be

difficulties in bridging the differences at future talks.

To overcome these obstacles a spirit of cooperation

must prevail, and any action that may aggravate the

situation must be avoided.

The success of the six-party talks would not only

bring the resolution of the nuclear issue regarding the

Democratic People's Republic of Korea, but should

also lead to the process of creating a durable peace on

the Korean peninsula.

More than 10 years after the end of the cold war,

the peninsula remains the last theatre of the cold war,

with 1.5 million heavily armed troops still pointing

guns across the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that

separates the Republic of Korea in the south and the

Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north. It

is time for this 50-year stand-off to give way to

reconciliation and cooperation. This process should be

cautiously managed and occur peacefully and gradually.

In this regard, I would like to draw on lessons

from the history of Europe that could be helpful in

defining the future of inter-Korean relations. As we all

know, in the century leading up to the Second World

War, relations between France and Germany were

characterized by the hostilities and confrontation of

three major wars.

After the Second World War, however, the

countries of Europe joined forces to help the two rivals

settle their differences and to pursue peace and

common prosperity through a network of economic

interdependence.

Thanks to the vision of Jean Monnet and Robert

Schuman, the European Coal and Steel Community

came into being and has since developed and expanded

to become the unprecedented, multilateral institution of

integration known today as the European Union.

To be sure, the case of the Korean Peninsula is

different from that of Europe. Nevertheless, as in the

case of Europe, I believe that a resolution to the

political conflict between the two sides of Korea could

be facilitated by economic interdependence.

President Roh Moo-hyun's policy toward the

North, aptly termed the policy for peace and prosperity,

is directly aimed at resolving the political confrontation

between the South and North through the deepening of

40

inter-Korean economic interdependence and with the

cooperation of the international community.

However, the nuclear programme of the

Democratic People's Republic of Korea has emerged as

the most serious challenge to the process of

consolidating peace and prosperity on the Korean

Peninsula. We in the Republic of Korea sincerely hope

that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will

realize that it simply cannot achieve economic

prosperity without fully abandoning its intentions to

develop nuclear weapons.

We note that all participants at the Beijing six-

party talks acknowledged the need to address the

security concerns of the Democratic People's Republic

of Korea, and we ask the Democratic People's

Republic of Korea to make a wise and far-reaching

decision in this regard. We strongly hope that the

security concerns of the North, along with the nuclear

issue, will be dealt with in more detail at the next six-

party talks.

Once the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

abandons its nuclear weapon programme and seizes the

opportunity offered by the six-party talks to embark on

a path towards peace and prosperity, my Government

will take further steps towards bold inter-Korean

economic cooperation.

The international community will also provide

necessary humanitarian and economic assistance. The

positive impact of such cooperation and assistance will

resound not only on the Peninsula but throughout the

region and beyond.

In conclusion, the abandonment by the Democratic

People's Republic of Korea of its nuclear programme

through the six-party talks and the subsequent start of

the peace process on the Korean Peninsula will present

an unprecedented opportunity to dramatically enhance

international relations in East Asia.

In this regard, we look forward to the support of

all Member States of the United Nations for the success

of the six-party talks and the establishment of a lasting

peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The United Nations has much work to do in the

twenty-first century. The global body is our greatest

hope in our common efforts to make the world safer

and more prosperous, for us and for future generations.

I sincerely hope to see the United Nations renew itself

and achieve its goals through continuous reform that

will make it more effective and democratic. The

Republic of Korea pledges its abiding support to the

work of the United Nations in its noble mission for

mankind as a whole.