Thank you. I am very pleased to meet you all. I am honored to address this G20 Summit that I am attending for the first time since I took office.

I fully agree with the opinions of the many leaders here about terrorism, and there is no need to repeat them. Terrorism and violent extremism not only harm innocent people but have also become serious threats to world peace and security. It is necessary to declare a strong commitment to making a decisive response with solidarity and put it into action.

All that has been agreed upon at the G20 Summit and in the United Nations Security Council resolutions should be faithfully implemented altogether. Korea will actively join such endeavors and continue to expand humanitarian assistance to affected countries in particular. Korea supports the efforts of the Financial Action Task Force to enhance its capabilities to cut off all sources of funding for terrorist groups.

Distinguished leaders of the G20 member states,

Even though it is not one of the scheduled items on the agenda, I have to tell you, as President of the Republic of Korea, about yet another critical challenge that urgently requires concerted attention and action on the part of the G20. That is North Korea`s nuclear and missile provocations. Just several days before the G20 Summit, the North fired a ballistic missile that is the most advanced so far, posing a threat to the entire world. The North`s anachronistic development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles is the gravest challenge to world peace and international norms as well as the U.N. Security Council resolutions.

To resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, which has emerged as a global threat, the international community has to further intensify pressure against the North, including through a new U.N. Security Council resolution. In doing so, it is necessary to make the North realize that nuclear weapons and missiles can never guarantee its survival, thereby leaving it no other option than to return to negotiations for denuclearization as soon as possible.

It is also necessary to firmly respond to North Korea’s provocations and, at the same time, to send a message that if it chose the path of denuclearization, it would be guaranteed security and development in return.

The international community shares a common goal—the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner. I urge the North to stop all nuclear provocations and quickly return to the negotiating table in earnest.

Considering the seriousness and urgency of the nuclear issue, I believe it is desirable that the G20 leaders here today demonstrate a clear resolve to respond to the issue together. When complete denuclearization and a peaceful regime is achieved on the Korean Peninsula, genuine peace and stability will be possible in all of Northeast Asia and the rest of the world. 

I ask the G20 leaders for your wholehearted interest and full support.

Thank you very much.