South Korea, 2007

I should like first to offer my warmest congratulations to

you, Mr. Kerim, on your assumption of the presidency

of the General Assembly at its sixty-second session. I

am confident that under your distinguished leadership

we will achieve great results during this important

session. I take this opportunity to assure you of the

Republic of Korea’s full support for your noble

endeavours.

I would also like to pay tribute to the Secretary-

General, His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his

excellent service during his first year in office. Based

on long experience of working closely with him, His

Excellency President Roh Moo-hyun of the Republic of

Korea and I have every confidence that he will

continue to fulfil his role with distinction.

Today’s global challenges require a collective

response. Ever-widening globalization has brought

with it a growing role for the United Nations. By virtue

of its universality, the United Nations is the right body

to deal with these global issues. No other organization

can provide the legitimacy and authority that the

United Nations offers. The United Nations has played

an indispensable role in setting international norms and

principles. It has pointed States and peoples in the right

direction. By enhancing predictability and rule-based

interaction between and among nations, the United

Nations is able to prevent conflicts of interest from

erupting into crises. Those are the quiet successes of

the United Nations that often go unnoticed, precisely

because the Organization helps to keep the

international system running smoothly. This aspect of

the work of the United Nations deserves full

recognition and should be further strengthened.

At the same time, the United Nations can do

better. We should persist in our efforts to strengthen the

world body through reform. This will be essential in

enabling the United Nations to respond effectively to

the most daunting challenges of our era. As steps

towards achieving that end, the Government of the

Republic of Korea fully supports the important

initiatives that the Secretary-General has taken to

promote the efficiency, effectiveness and

accountability of the Secretariat. In particular, we

appreciate his strenuous efforts to lead by example in

changing the Secretariat’s working culture.

Development, human rights and peace and

security are the three pillars of the United Nations.

They are all imperatives, and they are mutually

reinforcing. Let me begin with development. The

Millennium Development Goals agreed upon by our

leaders in 2000 have a target year of 2015. We are

already at the midpoint. It is essential that we assess

the current situation and renew our commitment. But

such actions will not be enough on their own. We need

to identify more effective means to fulfil those

commitments.

The Republic of Korea has been redoubling its

efforts to enhance its official development assistance

(ODA). We have committed ourselves to a threefold

increase by 2015 from our current ODA level. To

further support the international effort to eradicate

poverty, we have joined the air-ticket solidarity levy

initiative, an innovative source of financing for

development. At the same time, drawing lessons from

our own history of development, we place emphasis

not only on increasing the scale of our aid but also on

effectively sharing our experience with developing

countries.

An issue closely related to development is

climate change. There is a growing consensus that

climate change is placing serious constraints on

worldwide development capacity. It affects everyone

everywhere. Therefore it must be urgently addressed. I

hope that the political will shown by the leaders of

more than 150 nations at the gathering held here on

Monday, 24 September, leads to the adoption of a road

map to a post-2012 regime of realistic, tangible

solutions to this pressing concern. They should be

comprehensive and flexible enough to ensure

participation by as many countries as possible.

Turning to human rights, it is vital that the

Human Rights Council live up to the high expectations

that surrounded its creation. We must do all we can to

enable the Council to make real progress in the

promotion of human rights. Let us renew our

commitment and strengthen our joint efforts to ensure

its success. As an inaugural member of the Council, the

Republic of Korea is fully committed to the principle

of all human rights for all.

In that regard my Government is deeply

concerned about the current situation in Myanmar and

the loss of civilian lives during the continuing protests.

We strongly hope that the Government and the people

of Myanmar will work together peacefully towards

democratization and national reconciliation.

My Government has substantially increased its

efforts to eliminate discrimination against vulnerable

groups such as women, children and persons with

disabilities. We have vigorously pushed for necessary

legislation and the improvement of institutional

frameworks to protect and promote the rights of such

individuals. Also, we adopted a national action plan for

the promotion and protection of human rights in May

this year.

In the area of peace and security, United Nations

peacekeeping missions are continuing to grow in

importance as well as in the size and scope of their

activities. The strengthened United Nations Interim

Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), operating in southern

Lebanon, and the deployment of the African Union-

United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur are two

prominent examples.

Indeed, the rising demand for peacekeeping and

the broad support of the international community are

clear evidence of the crucial role of the United Nations

in maintaining peace and security. For our part, the

Republic of Korea’s recent participation in UNIFIL

testifies once again to our firm commitment to United

Nations peacekeeping activities. We will make every

effort to enable our well-trained and disciplined

Korean contingents to contribute further to

peacekeeping activities.

Peace cannot be sustained without development.

A comprehensive approach is required in order to make

the fragile peace of post-conflict situations durable and

irreversible. With the establishment of the

Peacebuilding Commission, the critical task of

consolidating peace and development has been

institutionalized. In that regard, I believe that the

experience of the Republic of Korea over the past half

century in rebuilding the nation from the ashes of war

since the 1950s could provide useful insights and

encouragements that might help the post-conflict

peacebuilding activities of the United Nations.

Terrorism continues to be one of the gravest

challenges of our times. The Republic of Korea

strongly condemns terrorism in all forms, committed

by whomever, wherever and for whatever purpose. We

fully support the ongoing global anti-terrorism efforts.

The Republic of Korea is party to 12 existing anti-

terrorism conventions, while being in the process of

ratifying the latest International Convention for the

Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. We are also

of the view that the United Nations should lose no

more time in concluding a comprehensive convention

on terrorism.

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction

(WMDs) and their delivery systems poses an

ever-increasing threat to the international community.

To curb WMD proliferation, our highest priority must

be to restore the integrity and relevance of the global

nuclear non-proliferation regime. In fact the Treaty on

the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)

regime is at a crossroads. It has faced unprecedented

challenges in recent years. In responding to those

challenges we need to pool our wisdom to strengthen

the current nuclear non-proliferation regime. The

inherent deficiencies in the NPT should be remedied,

and effective multilateral tools should be further

developed to better serve the purposes of both nuclear

non-proliferation and the peaceful use of nuclear

energy.

As home to the world’s sixth-largest civil nuclear

energy industry, the Republic of Korea regards the

peaceful use of nuclear energy as crucial to our

sustainable energy supply and economic development.

That is all the more reason why we support

strengthened safeguards against possible proliferation

as a guarantee of the expanded use of nuclear energy

for peaceful purposes.

Among the proliferation challenges facing the

international community, the nuclear issue of the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea requires our

immediate attention. That problem, if not resolved

soon, will seriously undermine the NPT regime. It also

has significant implications for peace and security in

North-East Asia and beyond. The Six-Party Talks are

the main vehicle through which to resolve the nuclear

issue of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

That process has made significant progress since its

launch in 2003. In the Joint Statement of September

2005, the six nations agreed on a blueprint for the

denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The

Agreement on Initial Actions, of February this year,

took that consensus another step forward, laying out

specific actions to implement the Joint Statement. We

hope that another agreement will be reached during the

new round of the Six-Party Talks now under way in

Beijing, leading to the disabling of the nuclear

facilities of the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea.

On the Korean peninsula, inter-Korean relations

will be taken to a higher level with the summit meeting

to be held in Pyongyang next week between President

Roh Moo-hyun and Chairman Kim Jong-il. The summit

will first of all aim at consolidating peace on the

Korean peninsula. The Democratic People’s Republic

of Korea will be encouraged to move forward on the

path to denuclearization. In the same vein, the leaders

will explore ways to increase mutual trust through

political and military confidence-building measures, as

well as ways to lay the groundwork for an eventual

inter-Korean economic community. With progress in

the denuclearization process, a new peace regime will

be established on the Korean peninsula to replace the

half-century-old armistice. The deepening of inter-

Korean relations and the improvement of ties between

the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and other

countries concerned will warrant such a change.

The resolution of the nuclear issue of the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will thus have

a ripple effect, extending its benefits well beyond the

Korean peninsula. The denuclearization of the Korean

peninsula will strengthen the NPT regime, serving as a

useful example of a negotiated solution for similar

problems in other parts of the world, including those in

the Middle East. A peace process on the Korean

peninsula will open the path to a regional security

dialogue, and the resultant improvement in North-East

Asian security will further strengthen regional and

global cooperation for peace and prosperity.

That may be an optimistic view. But it is

important that we see not only the threats and

challenges in our world but also the opportunities. With

the ongoing Six-Party Talks and next week’s inter-

Korean summit, we see a real opportunity for change,

and we hope that our partners in this process will help

us to transform today’s uncertainty into tomorrow’s

stability and prosperity.

Our efforts in North-East Asia are a testament to

the importance of diplomacy and international

cooperation, as exemplified by the United Nations.

Even the most daunting challenges can be overcome

when nations join forces to share the burden. For the

Republic of Korea, that is a lesson we have learned

through hard experience. Ever mindful of the days

when we gratefully received the assistance and support

of the international community for our very survival,

we now try to help others, whether by working to

strengthen regional security, participating in

peacekeeping missions far from home, or sharing our

resources and knowledge. These will be our modest

contributions to the betterment of all humanity, the

noble purpose embodied in the United Nations.