South Korea, 2005

Let me begin, Sir,

by extending my sincere congratulations to you on

assuming the presidency of the General Assembly at its

sixtieth session. Well aware of your experience and

diplomatic skills, I have every confidence that under

your able leadership, we will achieve great results

during this important session, which marks the sixtieth

anniversary of the United Nations. I would also like to

take this opportunity to pay tribute to your predecessor,

His Excellency Mr. Jean Ping, whose tireless work

enabled the membership to successfully prepare for the

High-level Plenary Meeting held last week. My highest

tribute also goes to the Secretary-General, His

Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, for his unqualified

dedication to our world body.

The leaders of the world gathered here last week

in the largest summit meeting of States in history and

demonstrated their collective political will to overcome

the challenges of the present and to build a future of

peace and prosperity for all humankind. They

reaffirmed their commitment to achieving the

Millennium Development Goals. They also

underscored the vital role of the United Nations for our

time and gave guidance on steps to reform the

Organization. The outcome document (resolution

60/1), adopted in the greatest spirit of cooperation and

compromise, may not be everything to everyone, but it

is the guideline for action that our leaders have given

us. The task now is to implement it.

The work will require determined action by all.

Success will be ensured only when each and every one

of us strives to look beyond the immediate horizon. We

must commit ourselves anew to realizing the ideal that

inspired the founders of the Organization 60 years ago,

that of building a peaceful and prosperous world in

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which all peoples live together in harmony, free from

want and fear.

Certainly, with 30,000 children dying of hunger

or preventable diseases every day, the world lies far

from that ideal today. Everyone agrees that we have the

means to lift the whole world out of poverty and

underdevelopment. We just need to effectively put

those means to good use. Thus, the concrete, action-

oriented recommendations adopted by our leaders on

partnership, financing, trade, debt relief and other

aspects of development are greatly welcome. We must

fully and speedily implement them so that, by the year

2015, most of the world’s impoverished are freed from

hunger and poverty, the spread of HIV/AIDS is halted,

primary education is made universal for all children,

gender equality takes firm root in all societies and the

global partnership to achieve those and other

development goals is in full operation.

In particular, we welcome the timetables many

developed countries have presented for reaching the

target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income for

official development assistance (ODA) by 2015. The

Republic of Korea is committed to doing its share.

Despite the internal and external economic challenges

that my country has faced since the financial crisis of

1997, we have continued to increase development

assistance year after year, doubling our ODA between

2000 and 2004. We now plan to double it again by

2009.

My Government is also seeking other ways to

build partnerships with developing countries. Utilizing

our resources and expertise in information and

communication technology, we are working with the

Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the

Pacific to build and host an Asia-Pacific training centre

for information and communication technology, with

an initial outlay of $10 million. The centre will

contribute to reducing the digital divide and enabling

developing countries to make the most of information

and communication technologies for development.

Korea is also dedicated to good governance,

which is an essential ingredient of development. Thus,

we are working with the Secretariat to establish a

United Nations governance centre in Seoul, as a

follow-up to the Sixth Global Forum on Reinventing

Government, which my Government hosted earlier this

year.

Health is another area that requires our collective

action. In our globalized, connected world, infectious

diseases can spread with terrifying speed, with no

regard for borders. They can become pandemics that

threaten the development and the security of affected

countries and regions. Here, too, the world must act

together. For its part, my Government is contributing to

the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and

Malaria.

We are also vigorously supporting the activities

of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, which

strives to develop and disseminate vaccines most

needed in the world’s poorest regions. And we have

taken part in the launching of the International

Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza,

announced by President Bush of the United States in

his speech here last week (see A/60/PV.2).

As world leaders noted, the threats to peace and

security around the world today are increasing,

interconnected and global in scale. They require of us

an urgent, collective and more determined response.

Terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass

destruction (WMDs) and transnational crime are grave

threats that can be most effectively addressed when

countries act in concert under the United Nations

banner.

Cruel and inhuman acts of terrorism targeting

innocent lives, as witnessed in Iraq, the United

Kingdom and elsewhere, are heinous crimes for which

there can be no justification. The Republic of Korea is

already a party to all 12 international anti-terrorism

conventions in force. Last week, I signed for my

Government the International Convention for the

Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism as soon as it

was opened for signature. We are strongly committed

to preventing and eradicating international terrorism in

all its forms. We will continue to actively participate in

the efforts to conclude a comprehensive convention on

international terrorism as soon as possible.

The proliferation of WMDs is another pressing

security concern. The prospect of WMDs falling into

the hands of terrorists is more alarming and real than

ever before. The Republic of Korea is fully committed

to the non-proliferation of WMDs. Thus, we are

dismayed that the outcome document of the High-level

Plenary Meeting is silent on this vital issue. We very

much hope for an early opportunity to redress this

omission. In the meantime, my Government will

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continue to press for the strengthening of the nuclear

compliance and verification system. We call for the

universal adoption of International Atomic Energy

Association (IAEA) additional protocols, the

disarmament and non-proliferation of biological and

chemical weapons and the full implementation of

Security Council resolution 1540 (2004).

In facing the threats of terrorism or WMDs, or

any traditional threats, the Security Council must be

made to act more quickly and efficiently to situations

that arise when the elements of a threat become reality.

At the same time, the Security Council must exercise

with only the utmost prudence its prerogative to

sanction the use of force. In that regard, we should

build upon the agreement reflected in the outcome

document on the establishment of principles for the use

of force. That would lead to the strengthened relevance

and efficiency of the Security Council and of the

collective security system embodied in the United

Nations as a whole.

Peacekeeping has been an important part of this

system. Indeed, the success of the peacekeeping

missions in such places as Timor-Leste has been one of

the proudest achievements of the Organization in

recent years. However, there have been failures, as

well as cases of fragile peace being overtaken by the

resumption of conflict. Shameful misconduct by some

peacekeeping operation personnel in certain missions

has added to the sense of disappointment. Obviously,

what is needed is a more structured and extensive

mechanism to make the peace more durable and

consolidate the grounds for post-conflict

reconstruction. In this regard, my Government

welcomes the decision taken at the High-level Plenary

Meeting to establish a Peacebuilding Commission.

We hope to play our part, so that effective

peacebuilding can become an important part of the role

of the United Nations to ensure peace and security

around the world. This is very much in line with our

past and current participation in efforts to restore peace

in many challenged areas of the world, including in

Iraq, where we are helping the Iraqi people to build a

democratic and prosperous country.

I would like to take this opportunity to address

the current situation regarding the North Korean

nuclear issue. After a 13-month hiatus, the fourth

round of the six-party talks commenced on 26 July,

broke off for a recess and resumed last week. During

the talks, all participants agreed on the goal and

principles of the denuclearization of the Korean

peninsula. They conducted serious, in-depth

consultations to make substantive progress towards

realizing that objective. For our part, the Republic of

Korea has made an earnest effort to expedite the talks

and move them towards a resolution, including through

the offer to supply 2 million kilowatts of electric power

to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea directly,

addressing one of the most pressing problems it faces.

As we are gathered here, the resumed fourth

round is under way to adopt an agreement on the

principles for the resolution of the North Korean

nuclear issue. Once adopted, the agreement will be a

crucial step towards the denuclearization of the Korean

peninsula and will launch discussions on an action plan

towards a peaceful resolution of the North Korean

nuclear issue.

A strategic decision by the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea to dismantle all nuclear weapons

and nuclear programmes would be met with economic

and energy assistance and security assurances. North

Korea must return to the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and comply

with the full scope of IAEA safeguards so as to restore

the trust of the international community. The doors

would then open to its right to peaceful use of nuclear

energy. We urge North Korea to take this road.

The Republic of Korea is committed to promoting

human rights as universal values that should be

guaranteed to all. Based on our own experience of the

past decades, we know that development and security

are on shaky ground without full respect for the human

rights of all. We thus welcome the reform initiatives to

strengthen the United Nations human rights system and

wholly support the creation of a Human Rights

Council. We would have preferred to see stronger

language and greater detail about the composition,

mandate and functions of the Council spelled out in the

summit outcome document. Working closely with other

delegations, we hope to promptly engage in active

consultations so that the Council can be established

and can start functioning as soon as possible.

The Republic of Korea is also committed to

democracy at home and abroad. We are an active

participant in the Community of Democracies and have

supported the International Conference of New and

Restored Democracies. We have pledged to contribute

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to the United Nations Democracy Fund, and we will

remain a strong supporter of the continuing mission of

the United Nations to nurture and strengthen

democracy and human rights around the world.

Respect for human rights and the rule of law are

indispensable for the preservation of peace and

cooperation among nations. Mass killings, genocide

and other grave infringements of human rights are

threats to peace and stability and must not be let pass

with impunity. The principle of the “responsibility to

protect”, as discussed during the High-level Plenary

Meeting, underscores the responsibility of the

international community to lend assistance to States in

upholding their solemn obligation to protect their

citizens. We support the continued deliberations by

Member States to reach agreement on the responsibility

to protect. This would certainly form the backbone of a

preventive mechanism against gross violations of

human rights.

Earlier this month, Hurricane Katrina devastated

New Orleans and the surrounding areas in the United

States, causing massive casualties and tremendous pain

and suffering for the victims and their families. On

behalf of the Government and people of the Republic

of Korea, I would like to extend our deepest

sympathies and condolences to those affected.

Coming less than a year after the massive tsunami

that struck many countries of South-East Asia, Katrina

once again mobilized the international community in

bringing emergency relief to the victims. It also

underscored the urgency of establishing effective

mechanisms to cope with natural disasters around the

world, including the importance of early warning

systems. With those lessons in mind, natural disasters

will be a primary issue for debate at the Asia-Pacific

Economic Cooperation summit meeting, which my

country is hosting in Busan in November. Meanwhile,

we reaffirm our support for the reform of United

Nations humanitarian aid agencies to enhance their

efficiency and effectiveness in helping countries to

recover from disaster and rebuild their capacities for

sustainable development.

We mark the sixtieth anniversary of the United

Nations with mixed feelings. On the one hand, there is

much hope. It is the hope of the entire international

community for the United Nations to prevail over the

new challenges of the twenty-first century and to

assume a more central role in strengthening peace and

security, promoting prosperity and spreading

democracy and human rights around the world. On the

other hand, there is widespread disappointment. It has

become painfully clear that the United Nations as it

stands today is unfit to carry out the demands of these

complex times. Between the hope and the

disappointment, there is much uncertainty. But of one

thing I am certain: all of us gathered here are united in

the conviction that the hope must triumph over the

disappointment; that we must rise to the occasion and

make the United Nations fit for the twenty-first

century.

Indeed, our global body must be strengthened

with far-reaching reforms that are in step with the

dynamic challenges of a borderless and fluid world.

Those reforms should be comprehensive —

encompassing all the elements of the system — and

realized in such a way as to give all Members, large

and small, a sense of ownership in the process and the

outcome. Faithful to the guidance provided in the

outcome document of the High-level Plenary Meeting,

and in synergistic cooperation with one another, all

stakeholders — Member States, the Secretariat, the

funds and programmes, specialized agencies and other

constituents of the United Nations system — must

seize this opportunity for renewal and revitalization.

Indeed, we must engage in a genuine exercise in

multilateralism to strengthen our global body.

Reform of the Security Council must be pursued

to enhance its accountability, transparency and

efficiency. My delegation believes that increasing the

number of non-permanent seats on the Council, with no

addition of permanent seats, is the best way to foster

broad-based consensus on this vital issue.

The Secretariat has long served the collective will

and interests of the Member States of the United

Nations. The contributions of those who have served in

the United Nations system with dedication and

professionalism should be highly praised. However, the

credibility and integrity of the system have been

damaged by recent revelations of mismanagement and

corruption. The maladministration of the oil-for-food

programme, as Mr. Volcker stated in delivering his

fourth report to the Security Council, should not be

seen as a lone case but as symptomatic of deep-seated

systemic issues of an Organization designed for

simpler times. Reform, as he further stated, is urgent.

Without bold reforms to restore the trust and support of

the global community, enhance efficacy and improve

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the morale of staff, the system will not be able to live

up to the growing expectations of the twenty-first

century.

Underscoring the vital importance of this issue,

the High-level Plenary Meeting has fully endorsed the

management reform initiatives taken by the Secretary-

General. With the active support and encouragement of

Member States, those initiatives should quickly bear

fruit, providing strengthened accountability and

oversight, higher performance and ethical standards for

staff, and greater authority and responsibility for the

Secretary-General as the chief administrative officer of

the Organization.

The challenges facing the United Nations today

are daunting. Some may find them insurmountable. But

we are a country that was born and developed

alongside the United Nations over the past 60 years,

receiving particularly active assistance from it in

earlier decades. We have full confidence in the future

of the Organization. Now a maturing democracy that

upholds human rights, an emerging donor that seeks to

do its share in helping others, and a staunch advocate

of peace and effective multilateralism, the Republic of

Korea is fully committed to bringing greater vitality

and reliability to the United Nations.

At the High-level Plenary the leaders of the world

gave us guiding words for making the United Nations a

more effective and relevant instrument for realizing the

aspirations of the global community in the twenty-first

century. We must not let those words remain just

words. Let us proceed with vigour and dedication to

put them into action.