(Unofficial Translation)

Congratulations on the opening of Jeju Forum 2020.

Your Excellencies, former Heads of State, 
Secretary-General of the United Nations, 
and Distinguished experts from various fields, 
thank you all for joining us virtually today.

Dear Ambassadors and Distinguished guests participating in person from Jeju, 
welcome to the Forum. 

Even in the midst of circumstances that are not conducive to holding global conferences due to the coronavirus, Jeju Forum has successfully begun today.

I also deeply appreciate the hard work of citizens of Jeju and staff members, including Governor Won Heeryong, who have successfully organized the Forum under difficult circumstances.

Jeju is an ‘Island of healing’ and an ‘Island of peace’.

With a warm heart striving to live in harmony with nature, permeated in every wall of stone and every breath of wind in Jeju, its citizens have healed the pain of one another. 

With a big heart seeking forgiveness and reconciliation, harbored in every leaf of camellia flowers in Jeju, 70 years ago, they could recover from the sorrow of state violence and embark on a path toward peace. 

Their aspirations for inclusiveness and co-existence constitute the very foundation and spirit that launched Jeju Forum. 

It was also their spirit of healing and peace that has empowered the Forum to develop, in the last 20 years, into an internationally recognized public platform in East Asia that leads discussions on peace and co-prosperity. 

I am incredibly pleased for this opportunity to discuss enhanced ways to promote multilateral cooperation when the time calls for humanity to share hope and courage, and mobilize support to defeat the coronavirus. 

I hope this Forum will serve as a stepping stone to overcome global health and economic crises and climate change, and head into a sustainable world. 

Moreover, I ask all participants, joining us virtually and in person, to take the occasion to experience Jeju’s history of forgiveness and reconciliation, and its beauty.

Distinguished guests, 

One of the many lessons coronavirus has taught humanity is that no one is safe until everyone is safe. 

At the onset of the pandemic, the world had little idea about how to respond to this unprecedented crisis. Korea was not an exception either. 

Early this year, Korea had the world’s second largest number of COVID-19 infections, and the Korean people chose to walk a path of solidarity and cooperation. 

They turned themselves into main actors in disease prevention efforts, thereby making their neighbors and their country safe. 

By sharing disease prevention equipments, they put safety of those more vulnerable to infectious diseases before their own. 


Thanks to our consistent efforts to find a way to live with the virus based on the principles of openness, transparency, and democracy, Korea is touted as a country that has most successfully contained the virus, and that is achieving the fastest economic recovery.

Korea extended the scope of neighbors beyond its borders.

While minimizing economic aftershocks by not closing borders and imposing lockdowns, we have been actively sharing our experience of responding to COVID-19 and clinical data with the rest of the world. 

Moreover, we have been providing disease prevention equipments to other countries to the best of our circumstances. 

When faced with hardships, humanity had never given in, and rather achieved great accomplishments such as freedom, democracy, humanitarianism and international cooperation. 

Korea was able to effectively respond to the pandemic by simply applying the conventional wisdom of humanity.

In order to win a complete victory over the pandemic, 
Korea is now committed to practicing universal values of humanity and standing united with the world in stronger solidarity and cooperation.

Since joining the OECD Development Assistance Committee in 2010, 
Korea has increased its ODA budget at a fast rate. 

With a view to helping developing countries overcome the coronavirus crisis, we have substantially increased next year’s ODA budget for public health and medicine as well. 

Korea is providing country-specific assistance to developing countries based on the ‘ODA Strategy to Respond to COVID-19’ and will pay greater attention to those more susceptible to infectious diseases such as women, refugees, and the impoverished.

Although it is hard to predict when the pandemic will come to a complete end, we will not be free of the coronavirus until the entire humanity becomes immune to the virus through vaccination. 

The ‘COVAX Advance Market Commitment mechanism’ was launched to ensure the supply of vaccines to developing countries. 

Korea will contribute 10 million dollars to the AMC and also actively participate in international cooperation for vaccines including by supporting the work of the International Vaccine Institute.

I’d like to ask you to pitch in your bright mind so that safe and effective vaccines can be equitably distributed around the world as public goods. 

Distinguished guests, 

Climate change is no longer a story of a remote future. 
It is a reality confronting us today. 

We must create a new momentum to address climate change and strengthen inclusiveness in international cooperation. 

The ‘Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5℃’ approved by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2018 says that limiting global warming to 1.5℃ compared to 2℃ can save 10 million more lives. 

This is the goal that can be attained only when the global community builds a united front against climate change, through stronger solidarity and cooperation, and with greater urgency. 

Korea has taken part in the international community’s efforts to tackle climate change by implementing the Paris Agreement, and is seeking to achieve sustainable development with twin engines of ‘Digital New Deal’ and ‘Green New Deal’.

Korea will enhance productivity by applying data, network and AI technology and build more ‘Smart Factories’ and ‘Smart Green Industrial Complexes’ by harnessing clean energy. 

By investing over 73 trillion won in total in Green New Deal for climate action and greener economy until 2030, Korea will continue to walk unwaveringly toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. 

Jeju Island is leading transition to a carbon-neutral economy with an ambition to become the first region in Korea to succeed in reaching a net zero target by 2030. 

Korea will also cooperate with developing countries.

By actively participating in their projects to build ‘Smart Industrial Complexes’ and ‘Smart Cities’ and sharing our own experiences, we will work together toward sustainable development. 

The ‘P4G Summit’ will be held in Seoul next year. 

In preparation for the Summit, Korea is coming up with how the international community can come together and pursue substantive cooperation to address climate and environmental issues. 

I hope that next year’s P4G Summit will serve as an important occasion to strengthen global unity and step up action to build back better and greener. 

I call for active cooperation from the international community. 

Distinguished guests, 


This year marks the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War.
Even though the Armistice Agreement was signed, without a peace treaty in place, the Korean War has not ended yet, and neither has the pain and sorrow of the War. 

Korea is still yearning for peace. 
Korea will never cease its efforts to end the War for good, achieve denuclearization, and establish permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. 
I want to stress once again that peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia as a whole cannot be achieved without peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The successful hosting of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games as Peace Olympics demonstrated in a dramatic way how resolute decisions made by two Koreas, together with multilateral cooperation, can bring peace to the Korean Peninsula and contribute to world peace. 
The spirit behind a multilateral peace regime is what we need to build peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

At the UN General Assembly in September, I proposed launching a ‘Northeast Asia Cooperation Initiative for Infectious Disease Control and Public Health’, whereby countries within the region including the two Koreas participate as members. 

Having gone through human-to-human and domestic animal infectious diseases and natural disasters together, the South and the North have been repeatedly reminded that the two are a single community of life and safety. 

I am confident that a ‘Northeast Asia Initiative for Infectious Disease Control and Public Health’, embodying the spirit of solidarity and inclusiveness, will save lives and protect safety of all and pave the path toward peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia and beyond. 

I look forward to your strong support and active cooperation. 

Korea has now become big enough to be ranked among the world’s 10 largest economies and strong enough to contribute to world peace while defending itself. 

As a middle power, Korea will also play its due role in making Northeast Asia safer and more prosperous.

Distinguished guests, 

Humanity is fighting the coronavirus, sharing in sufferings of others.

The post-coronavirus era will not mean a return to our daily lives that caused the outbreak of coronavirus.

We will triumph over the pandemic through solidarity and cooperation and march into a more inclusive and sustainable world. 

I am confident that today’s Forum will serve as an invaluable opportunity that will help humanity overcome global crises of coronavirus and climate change by sharing wisdom, experiences, and technologies that humanity has accumulated. 

If we end the Forum with having you all return home safe and healthy, 
there would not be any bigger success than that. 

I wish you all good health and hope that Jeju Forum will present a new hope to humanity. 

Thank you.