President Yoon ex­presses deep sympa­thy for the victims of forced mobilization, in response to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's statement, during the Ko­rea-Japan summit held on May 8th. President Yoon stated that he "feels heartbroken for those who suffered in difficult and sad circumstances."

 

During the 19th Cabinet Meeting held at the Blue House, President Yoon empha­sized that if both Korea and Japan face their dark history with sincerity, they can over­come the challenges and create a new future. President Yoon stated that during the Korea-Japan sum­mit, the two countries will discuss cooperation plans in various fields such as econo­my, industry, science, culture, and human exchange in depth. Regarding the issue of han­dling contaminated water from Fukushima, President Yoon announced that a team of ex­perts from South Korea will be dispatched to the site for in­spection.

 

President Yoon also ex­plained that the security of South Korea has undergone a transformation, as they no lon­ger rely solely on North Korea's goodwill. He also highlighted that they have resumed joint military ex­ercises with the United States, which had been suspended for several years, and strength­ened practical training. The mutual defense treaty between South Korea and the United states, which was based on conventional military capabil­ities in the past, has been up­graded with a nuclear capabili­ty. 

 

 

 

President Yoon Suk-yeol's speech at the 19th Cabinet meeting.

ast Sunday, as Prime Min­ister of Japan, Mr. Kishida vis­ited Korea for the first time in 12 years.

The shuttle diplomacy be­tween South Korea and Ja­pan, which resumed with my visit to Japan on March 16th, required 12 years of effort. However, it took less than two months for the leaders of the two countries to start exchang­ing visits.

 

Prime Minister Kishida ex­pressed his sympathy for the victims of forced mobilization, saying that he deeply feels the pain and sadness they have ex­perienced in harsh conditions. If we face our dark past with sincerity, both Korea and Ja­pan can overcome the difficul­ties they face and open up a new future.

 

At this Korea-Japan summit, we discussed cooperation plans in various areas such as econ­omy, industry, science, culture, and people-to-people exchanges in depth. In addition, we decided to dispatch a field inspection team composed of our experts to deal with the Fukushima contaminated water issue. Next week, at the G7 sum­mit, the leaders of Korea and Japan will together visit the memorial for Korean victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb­ing.

 

Things that were unimag­inable just a short while ago are now happening between Korea and Japan. If Korea and Japan, who share the values of freedom and democracy, build trust through exchange and cooperation, they can pioneer a new future beyond the best times of the past Korea-Japan relationship.

I urge each ministry to care­fully follow up and implement the cooperation measures discussed at the Korea-Japan summit, so that our citizens can directly and indirectly ben­efit from them.

 

 

At the upcoming G7 summit, a trilateral summit among the leaders of Korea, the United States, and Japan will also be held. Following the Washing­ton Declaration agreed upon during my state visit to the United States last month, which strengthened the exten­sion of North Korea contain­ment between Korea and the United States, we can further solidify our solidarity through security cooperation among Korea, the United States, and Japan to build peace in the re­gion.

 

There is no area where as big a change has occurred as in diplomacy and security when I think about this time, a year ago, when I took office as Pres­ident. Through the South Korea-U. S. summit held just 11 days af­ter the inauguration, the South Korea-U.S. alliance was effec­tively rebuilt. Last June, I attended the NATO summit as the first Ko­rean leader to do so.

 

At the NATO summit, coun­tries sharing universal values discussed ways to establish solidarity in freedom and co­operation for global security, which has changed from re­gional security. In addition, on the occasion of the NATO sum­mit, South Korea strengthened its practical cooperation in the fields of nuclear power, semi­conductors, and supply chains through bilateral talks with various countries and achieved results in defense exports.

Now, South Korea's defense industry is moving forward vigorously with the goal of be­coming one of the top four de­fense exporters in the world.

 

In September of last year, the "New York Initiative" was announced at the UN General Assembly and New York Uni­versity, proposing solutions for bridging the digital gap and establishing a new normative order in the digital space, as well as digital ODA.

During a recent visit to the United States, in a Harvard speech titled "A New Journey Toward Freedom," the impor­tance of global citizens' solidar­ity and cooperation to prevent the misuse of digital technol­ogy that infringes on freedom was emphasized.

 

For the past year, I have been promoting top-level sales diplo­macy as South Korea's No. 1 salesperson.

On the occasion of the visit of Saudi Crown Prince bin Sal­man last November, we signed 26 MOUs worth about KRW 40 trillion.  As a result, in March of this year, we held the groundbreak­ing ceremony for the $9.3 bil­lion Shahin Project by Essoil, which was our first achieve­ment. In particular, during the UAE state visit in January of this year, we attracted strate­gic investments worth $30 bil­lion.

 

Through these large-scale investments in oil money, we expect to provide great support for our promising startups, venture businesses, and small and medium-sized enterprises to leap into global small and medium-sized companies.  We will continue to work hard to put the economy at the center of diplomacy, expand exports of our products, and at­tract investments from foreign advanced companies.South Korea's security, which relied only on North Korea's goodwill, has also undergone a transformation. We are strengthening our three-axis defense system.

 

In addition, we resumed the South Korea-U.S. joint mili­tary exercises, which had been suspended for several years, and strengthened practical training. The mutual defense trea­ty between South Korea and the United States, which was based on traditional military power, has been upgraded to a nuclear-capable one.

 

Through the Washington Declaration, a summit-level agreement, and the establish­ment of the Nuclear Coopera­tion Group (NCG), the United States has promised defense, including nuclear weapons, at an unprecedented level for South Korea, and South Korea has strengthened its expansion deterrence through joint planning and execution of U.S. nuclear asset opera­tions.