South Korea, 2000

It

gives me great delight and honour to address the

General Assembly's first session of the new

millennium. I would like to begin by conveying my

sincere congratulations to you, Sir, on your election to

the presidency of this historic session, the success of

which is ensured, I believe, by the experience and

wisdom you bring to this noble work. I would also like

to pay tribute to your predecessor, His Excellency

Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, whose dedication and

leadership enabled the fifty-fourth session to lay the

groundwork for the Millennium Assembly.

I also take this opportunity to warmly welcome

the admission of Tuvalu to the United Nations.

Two weeks ago world leaders, including my

President, gathered in this very place to rally the

political will of the international community to meet

the challenges of the new millennium. Their meeting of

minds here in this Hall of peace, as summed up in the

Millennium Declaration, reaffirmed the role of the

United Nations as the embodiment of humankind's

aspiration to greater peace and prosperity, to be

strengthened and fulfilled through the efforts of all

Member States.

It is only right that the new millennium should

start with the beginning of the end of the confrontation

and conflicts handed down from the past era. Such a

start has been made on the Korean peninsula with the

first South-North Korean summit meeting in June. As a

result, inter-Korean relations have taken a definite turn

for the better. The whole world stands to benefit from

the liquidation of the final legacy of the cold war that

the summit appears to have set in motion on the Korean

peninsula.

During the June summit the two leaders engaged

in an extensive discussion on peace on the Korean

peninsula, South-North economic cooperation and the

future of the Korean people. At the end, they

announced a five-point joint declaration committing

the top leaders of the two sides to steering inter-Korean

relations away from tension and enmity towards

reconciliation, peaceful coexistence and co-prosperity

and eventual unification.

The summit is being followed up with inter-

Korean ministerial meetings to work out concrete steps

to implement the summit agreements. Some steps have

already been taken, such as the reopening of the liaison

offices at the truce village of Panmunjom and several

sociocultural exchange programmes. Some are in the

making — the work to reconnect the railroad between

the two sides and the negotiation of the necessary legal

instruments for full-scale economic exchanges, such as

agreements on investment guarantees, avoidance of

double taxation, settlement procedures and dispute

arbitration. The third ministerial round is to be held

later this month on Cheju island of South Korea.

In the latest development the two sides have

agreed on a return visit to the South by Chairman Kim

Jong Il at an early date. Furthermore, in a key move for

tension reduction, a South-North defence ministers'

meeting is to be held on 25 and 26 September, also on

Cheju island.

Each of these developments stirs the hearts and

minds of the Korean people. But none would match the

profound emotions that were aroused in mid-August by

the exchange of visits in Seoul and Pyongyang by

families that have suffered the unprecedented

humanitarian plight of remaining separated for half a

century. It was a limited exchange involving only 100

individuals from each side, out of an estimated 10

5

million members of families torn apart by the national

division. But further exchanges are in the planning, as

are more lasting solutions to their plight.

As dramatic and hopeful as the June summit and

the inter-Korean developments since then have been,

only the first steps have been taken in the long process

of ending the cold war and establishing a lasting peace

on the Korean peninsula. We sincerely seek the abiding

interest and support of the international community to

see us through. In this regard, I should like to express

my Government's wholehearted appreciation of the

statement by the Co-Chairpersons of the Millennium

Summit welcoming the inter-Korean summit and the

follow-up measures.

At the dawn of a new millennium the United

Nations has yet to resolve the old problems of violent

conflicts that are worsening in both scope and nature.

In many parts of the world, countless lives continue to

be lost in armed conflicts, insurgencies and ethnic

violence at regional, subregional, and intra-national

levels. We, as Member States, have to rally a stronger

political will to prevent a repetition of these tragedies

that have happened or are happening in Rwanda,

Kosovo, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of

the Congo.

It is particularly deplorable that United Nations

personnel in the field are under growing, violent attack.

We urge all parties concerned to guarantee the safety

and security of the peacekeeping, humanitarian and

other United Nations personnel. In this regard we

welcome the Brahimi report as providing a useful basis

for improving the effectiveness of the peacekeeping

operations activities with an adequate mandate and

resources.

My Government remains fully committed to

United Nations peacekeeping missions. Last year, in

support of the democratic aspiration of a people, the

Republic of Korea sent an infantry battalion to East

Timor. Furthermore, with the economy regaining a

growth momentum, we are taking steps to fulfil our

pledge of an increase in our contribution to the

peacekeeping operations budget. This is an expression

of our firm belief that in the twenty-first century the

United Nations should be better prepared and more

willing to fulfil its responsibility for international

peace and security.

Many leaders at the Millennium Summit spoke of

the double-edged nature of the globalizing world,

which brings unprecedented opportunities for

economic growth on the one hand, while it further

widens the disparities between the developed and

developing countries, on the other. Aggravated by the

digital divide of the information age, the wealth gap

can become a source of unrest and instability in the

world.

The Republic of Korea has actively taken on the

challenges of globalization. At home we have turned

the recent economic crisis into an opportunity to gear

up for the knowledge-based economy of the global

information age. We knew that we must emerge from

the crisis not simply as we were before the crisis but in

a new form fit to thrive in the age of information

industries and borderless competition. Thus, bold

reforms have been under way to rid the economy of

past inefficiencies and to accelerate liberalization and

market opening. Active Government assistance has

been rendered to small and medium-venture businesses

in the information sector, as well as to educating the

people in computer literacy.

Government policies have combined with the

intellectual vigour and adventurous spirit of the Korean

people to produce the world's fastest growing Internet

population an estimated 20 million users by the end

of the year out of a population of 43 million, almost 50

per cent of our entire population. While actively

promoting the information age, we have also given

special attention and care to those pockets of society

that would fall further behind without help. Our efforts

in this area have been built around the concept of

“productive welfare”, which aims at enabling the

socially weak and enhancing the living standards of all.

A key operative term is human resources development,

which offers training and education to all who are

willing to work.

We believe that the same concept of enabling the

weak to develop their capacities should be applied in

international development assistance. Thus, on the

occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

(APEC) Forum on Shared Prosperity and Harmony in

Seoul in March this year, our President, Kim Dae-jung,

urged donors to support the developing countries in

their efforts to set up information centres which would

provide communities with access to the Internet and

other conveniences of the information age. I am very

happy that the proposal is entirely consistent with the

Secretary-General's initiative on the United Nations

Information Technology Service (UNITeS). In addition,

6

my Government is increasing its assistance for human

resources development in the developing economies

through the dispatch of experts and invitations to

trainees in the information and telecommunication

fields. In particular, in collaboration with the United

Nations, we have offered training opportunities to

experts from African countries in export promotion.

We will continue to strengthen cooperation with the

United Nations to address the mounting challenges that

Africa faces.

Shared values and ideals make for the strongest

of the bonds that enable nations to work together

beyond differences in history, ethnicity and socio-

economic development. In this regard, the spread of

democracy and its values in the post-cold-war era has

greatly enriched the grounds for the global community

to build a world of durable peace and prosperity and of

dignity for all human beings. While upholding human

rights and democratic values at home, democracies

should cooperate to promote their universality in the

global community. Thus, the Republic of Korea was

happy to serve as a co-convenor for the first

international conference of the Community of

Democracies in Warsaw last June, and we are honoured

that Korea will host the second international

conference of the Community of Democracies in

October 2002.

Meanwhile, to strengthen democracy at home, my

Government has continued the endeavour to improve

human rights laws and practices. At present we are in

the process of enacting a comprehensive human rights

law, which will give birth to a national human rights

commission. The commission will work to improve

institutional arrangements for the promotion of human

rights and to raise public awareness. We are also

making significant progress in enhancing the rights of

women and children as well as workers. Particularly

noteworthy is the creation of the Ministry of Women,

due within this year, to advance gender equality.

As the new millennium opens, the challenges

facing the United Nations are multifaceted and ever-

diversifying. I have mentioned a few. There are many

more issues, such as disarmament and sustainable

development, that are equally important. However, the

resources of the global body remain limited. Ongoing

reform is required to enable the United Nations to meet

the challenges with greater efficiency and

effectiveness. Thanks to the Secretary-General's

initiative, considerable achievements have been made

to streamline the Organization, but there are still areas

where creative input is called for. Security Council

reform is one of those areas. We believe that

representativeness, transparency and effectiveness must

be the guiding terms in the debate for a comprehensive

reform of the Council.

We do not need new concepts to describe the

challenges of the new millennium. They are still the

problems of peace and prosperity and the right of

human beings to live with dignity. However,

globalization has increased the intensity of the

problems as well as the chances for their resolution.

Therefore, the role of the United Nations must also be

consolidated. The Government of the Republic of

Korea is prepared to play an active role commensurate

with its abilities to accomplish the common goals of

the global community. I sincerely hope that this body

will lead the way in putting the lofty spirit of the

Millennium Declaration into action. In the process, my

country, the Republic of Korea, heartened by the

enhanced hope for its peaceful and prosperous future,

will play an active part.