목요대화 바로가기 목요대화 menu
검색 열기
 
 

태극기 이미지

국가상징 이란?

한나라의 공식적인 표상으로서 우리나라는 태극기·애국가·무궁화·국새·나라문장을 국가상징으로 하고 있습니다.

닫기

국무총리

  • home
  • 국무총리
  • 연설문
  • 역대 연설문․메시지

유엔총회의장 환영 만찬사<영문>

  • 작성자 : 관리자
  • 등록일 : 2008.08.29
  • 조회수 : 2724
President and Madam Kerim
Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen,

It gives me and my wife great honour and pleasure to host this special dinner to welcome Dr. and Madam Kerim tonight. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to President Kerim for traveling a long way to visit my country since I am well aware that it might not be so easy for him to find time in his demanding schedule of President of the UN General Assembly to fly half around the globe from New York to Seoul.

Personally, I am very much pleased to have President Kerim here with us as we have known each other since 2001, when I served as President of the 56th Session of the UN General Assembly and President Kerim, having completed his distinguished tenure as Foreign Minister, was then Permanent Representative of the Republic of Macedonia to the UN.

Throughout those turbulent days under the shadow of 9/11, we worked together to deal with common challenges at the UN and built special friendship personally.

Sharing the same kind of experiences and sense of urgency concerning pressing global issues facing us today, President Kerim and I this morning had truly productive discussions and shared views that cooperation between Korea and the United Nations needs to be further enhanced in various areas of our mutual interest.

Further to the invaluable time of exchanging our views on the United Nations and its tasks, I am very delighted to provide this opportunity for Dr. Kerim to meet with distinguished guests present here, many of whom have been directly and indirectly involved in the issues crucial to the UN in Korea.

I would also like to note that we have a number of entrepreneurs here tonight who share the ideals of the United Nations Global Compact and are committed to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which became a new frontier issue, for promotion of which the United Nations is currently working together with the private sector and global civil society.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It was just last month that the Korean people had the pleasure of welcoming UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, one of Korea's proudest sons, back home. Along with Secretary-General Ban's homecoming, President Kerim's visit, I believe, would also serve as a good reminder of the strong and close bonds that Korea and the United Nations have built thus far.

It is somewhat ironical that Korea is a relatively young member of the United Nations despite its long-standing relationship with the Organization which goes back to the founding of our nation whose 60th anniversary is now being celebrated nationwide.

As you may know well, it was in the 2nd session of the UN General Assembly in 1947 that the Organization was called upon to observe elections on the Korean peninsula.

Needless to say, the founding of the Republic of Korea, where 48 million Korean population are immensely proud of the nation's achievements both in economic growth and political democratization, was inseparably related to the United Nations and its member states.

The UN General Assembly is the only organ representing the entire membership of the United Nations. President of the General Assembly presides over the body and coordinates various positions among members and thereby plays a key role in deciding actions of the General Assembly in addressing major global issues facing the international community.

As I stand here, my mind goes back to the time when I embarked on my term as President of the 56th Session during 2001-2002.

My tenure began with the task of bringing together a swift and coordinated response to the horrific terrorist attacks of 9/11. On September 12, 2001, a day after the twin towers fell, the General Assembly adopted a resolution strongly condemning terrorism and sending a clear message of the determination to eradicate terrorism in all its forms.

Over the following days and months, we worked hard to strengthen the cooperative mechanisms against new security threats.

Indeed, in the midst of an environment of rapid change, the post of President of the General Assembly is one that demands an unwavering sense of mission and responsibility for the promotion of international peace.

The UN has faced various threats and challenges that can only be addressed if we unite with determination to rise to them.

Its 62nd session has not been an exception. We are facing urgent issues in an ever widening number of fields - the need for the maintenance of international peace and security as witnessed in the recent conflict in Georgia; climate change, which has a direct bearing on the survival of humanity; development; and food and energy crisis, which demands an urgent response at the UN level to name only a few.

In the face of such challenges, President Kerim has demonstrated skillful leadership in addressing the key issues facing the international community.

Through high-level meetings and other ways, he has effectively drawn the attention of the international community to these vital issues.

Furthermore, President Kerim has actively contributed to reform of the UN by playing a leading role in deliberating reform measures on difficult issues and garnering the general agreement of the Member States.

Indeed, during his Presidency, the role and function of the General Assembly have been highly appreciated and much of this can be attributed to President Kerim's wealth of experience in dealing with global issues as well as his deep insight and knowledge on them.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The international community, including the UN, holds in high regard for the experience of Korea of emerging from the ruins of war and transforming itself from a war-ravaged nation to a thriving economy and full-fledged democracy in such a short period of time.

And the international community has been calling upon Korea to share its experience of rapid development and assume an even fuller role in the joint efforts for international peace and shared prosperity for humanity.

During his recent visit to Korea, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly called for Korea to rise to the expectations of the international community by enlarging its participation in peacekeeping operations and increasing its official development assistance (ODA).

As part of its efforts to build a "Global Korea" with a mature global outlook, the Lee Myung-bak government has made it one of the three pillars of foreign policy to win the trust and confidence of the international community by contributing fully to the efforts to resolve global challenges and to the co-prosperity of all peoples.

In the area of ODA, for instance, while Korea's contribution in terms of Gross National Income (GNI) is still relatively low compared with OECD Development Assistance Committee members, we have seen a continuing trend of a dramatic increase, with a 43% increase in 2007 over the previous year.

We expect to achieve 0.1% of GNI by the end of this year, 0.15% by 2012, and 0.25% by 2015. This means that ODA that amounts to about 1 billion US dollars this year will more than triple to 3.3 billion US dollars by 2015.

I take this opportunity to assure you that Korea will also continue to actively contribute to realization of the ideals of the UN, including peace and security, development, and promotion of human rights.

Both Korea and Macedonia, President Kerim's homeland, have often suffered in the past due to the geopolitics.

Nevertheless, our two countries have overcome these challenges and have been contributing greatly to the peace and stability of our respective regions.

I sincerely hope that the ties between the two countries will grow in the future as we continue to actively participate in regional and international efforts for peace and co-prosperity.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would now like to propose a toast.

Please join me in a toast to the continued good health and success of President and Madam Kerim and to the further development of strong relationship between Korea and the UN. Cheers!

Thank you.