■ Cast: Chung Eui-yong / Minister of Foreign Affairs
* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate content.
[앵커]
President Moon Jae-in is currently traveling to three countries in Africa and the Middle East, exploring various ways of cooperation. What is the meaning of this visit and how foreign policy will develop during the remainder of his term? Minister, are you with me?
[정의용]
Hello?
[앵커]
Hello? Now, it is said that the tour group is staying in Egypt, the last country they visited. I hear that it is the first visit by the Korean leader to Egypt in 16 years since President Roh Moo-hyun in 2006. How is the local atmosphere?
[정의용]
In fact, you are here for an official visit, but you are being treated like a state guest in the local area. As of yesterday, you and Al-Sisi spent a total of three and a half hours together, including an official luncheon, and had many conversations. There were also many achievements.
Regarding the K-9 self-propelled howitzer, detailed contract terms have not been negotiated yet, so we are working on coordination until the end, so I expect good results. In addition, Korea designated Egypt as a key partner country for ODA this year and newly established an EDCF worth 1 billion dollars, which will be used by Korean companies to advance into Egypt.
Also, yesterday, on behalf of the government, I signed an MOU to support electronic information procurement and railroad modernization projects, and also agreed on the first procedure for initiating FTA negotiations with Egypt. Egypt also has a Vision 2030 plan, which is a very ambitious business plan to dramatically improve the people’s quality of life.
It is expected that many Korean companies will be able to participate in this plan, and a new administrative capital is under construction. Also, as you know, Egypt is a strategic location where three continents intersect, and it is also playing a leading role in diplomacy in Africa and the Middle East. I think that Egypt’s declaration of its full support for the Korean Peninsula peace process is one of the great achievements.
[앵커]
Okay. It must be a tour during the last term of President Moon Jae-in, but you spoke briefly focusing on Egypt.
[정의용]
The three countries on this tour are all very important cooperative partners in diplomatic relations with the Middle East. And in fact, this visit was largely conducted in the form of a return visit. In the case of Saudi Arabia, the Crown Prince visited South Korea in 2019. In addition, President Al-Sisi made an official visit to Korea in 2016.
Also, in the case of the UAE, the Dubai Expo Korea Day was designated on January 16, so you were invited to the event. Overall, the trip to all three countries is considered to be very successful.
[앵커]
I was a little surprised that I was scheduled to visit the United Arab Emirates and have a practical summit with the Crown Prince, but it was suddenly canceled. Then there was a drone attack by the Yemeni rebels. I was quite surprised to hear about this, but I wonder what the situation was like at the time. And didn’t it cause any disruption to your schedule?
[정의용]
Abu Dhabi The attack by the Yemin Houthis was an attack near an oil depot in Abu Dhabi. Safety was not an issue as our group was on an itinerary in Dubai, which is about 110km from Abu Dhabi.
Immediately after this incident, I made an urgent phone call with Crown Prince Mohammed to define and condemn such an attack on civilians by the Houthis as an unacceptable act of terrorism. There was also a lot of discussion. In particular, the UAE has agreed to continue to cooperate with us for the Busan Expo.
[앵커]
We heard that the Minister also visited the UAE, that is, the Ark unit of the United Arab Emirates. How was it to see our soldiers in other countries in person?
[정의용]
The UAE is the only country in the Middle East to have a special strategic partnership with Korea. With this relationship in the background, we have been dispatching the Ark unit for 11 years. In fact, during the visit, the president planned to visit three symbolic sites of our cooperation with the UAE, but due to the schedule, it was impossible to do so. I have visited the unit on behalf of the president.
It was very moving to see our 150 or so unit members working hard to carry out their missions in the middle of the desert. In particular, they were carrying out their missions with pride as military diplomats. The Ark units listed here are not out for peacekeeping activities, but are dispatched with a special purpose to support the training of the UAE forces through the special relationship between Korea and UAE.
In particular, there were a few female soldiers among the members of the unit, and I was deeply moved by their appearance. One of them was an explosives squad, who had a rather difficult mission. It seems like these things will make the activities of our female soldiers a good role model for the empowerment of UAE women.
[앵커]
When I visited Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman came to the airport himself. He is a well-known figure who is well-known for being a young man in power and interested in defense weapons and then in new energy issues.
[정의용]
Very unusual. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, and he not only came to the airport directly, but also had official talks and luncheons. And that evening, an informal communion dinner was held separately, but in fact, the visit to Saudi Arabia was in the form of a working visit. But in reality, he was treated like a state guest.
Also, in particular, the Saudi government took care of the schedule for our first lady separately, but we cannot disclose the details, but we see this as a very unusual courtesy. Crown Prince Mohammed and the President spent a lot of time together and talked a lot, and I was mostly present.
There was a lot of discussion about the big directions and principles not only about cooperation in the practical field, but also how to expand cooperation in the defense industry in the future. There is no special contract signed or anything like that on this occasion, but it is expected that there will be significant cooperation in the defense industry between Korea and Saudi Arabia in the future.
Also, in the field of substantive cooperation, Saudi Arabia is building a separate administrative capital called Neon City, which is said to be worth about 500 billion dollars. There are many opportunities for Korean companies to participate in this project, and for these Korean companies to enter the market, we have set up a basic loan agreement of about $6 billion over the next two years, separately from the Saudi government.
In addition, Saudi Arabia has a Vision 2030 plan, and the 3rd Korea-Saudi Joint Committee for Vision 2030 was held on this occasion. The strength of that hydrogen utilization technology. There was a very in-depth discussion about how to link this.
It is also considered a significant achievement to agree to resume negotiations with the GCC, the Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Bureau, which is stationed in Saudi Arabia on this occasion.
[앵커]
Anyway, in Korea, the goal of this visit is to win orders, exports, and weapons. We look forward to seeing the great business that we are holding onto this way. However, even during the Middle East tour, North Korea continues to demonstrate armed force.
Criticism of the current government’s North Korea policy continues to pour in. As someone who has led the government’s North Korea policy, what is the current situation?
[정의용]
As you may well remember, when the Moon Jae-in government was inaugurated in 2017, the situation on the Korean Peninsula was an immediate crisis. Shortly after taking office as president, the missile was launched a few days later, and the missile was also launched on the day I took office as the head of the National Security Office.
And on September 3, the sixth nuclear test was conducted, and on November 29 of that year, an ICBM-class Hwasong-15 missile was also launched. In the meantime, the Korean government was launched immediately without a transition committee, and the president visited Washington and held a summit meeting with President Trump a month and a half after the inauguration of the president. A joint statement was adopted on the spot, and there were three important points in the joint statement.
One is to solve the Korean Peninsula problem peacefully; the second is to guarantee a bright future if North Korea makes the right choice; Since then, we have been involved in North Korea, working closely with the United States on these three principles. Also, during the first visit, the president abolished the ballistic weight restrictions in the missile guidelines between the ROK and the US.
Although the missile directive itself was later scrapped, it was a huge achievement. It hasn’t been done in decades. Since then, I think our defense capabilities have improved significantly. President Moon Jae-in’s security doctrine is twofold.
Peace through strength. So, I would like to tell you that we made a huge investment in national defense and that defense budget, which was only 40 trillion won at the time, has increased remarkably to more than 55 trillion won this year.
Second, by expanding the concept of security from the narrow concept of security applied only to North Korea in the past to the concept of comprehensive security, it introduced such a comprehensive concept of security that expands intelligence reconnaissance and strategic strike capabilities to the entire Korean Peninsula.
As you well know, in 2018, the inter-Korean competition was held on the occasion of the Pyeongchang Olympics, and in the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration, the leaders of the two Koreas held discussions on the North Korean nuclear issue for the first time, and there was an official agreement between the leaders of the two Koreas on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Also, in the September 19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration, an agreement was reached to completely dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear facility and also to dismantle the Tongchang-ri missile testing site, but negotiations between the United States and North Korea in Hanoi in February 2019 broke down. It’s actually a pity that the conversation was cut off completely after that.
[앵커]
In any case, as President Moon Jae-in interviewed the local media regarding this issue, it seems that it is not easy to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. He said that the road to peace has not yet been institutionalized. Does this mean the end of the war?
[정의용]
I understand that you are speaking in a more comprehensive sense including the declaration of an end to the war. Regarding the declaration of the end of the war, a consensus was formed between the ROK and the US on the importance of implementation. In addition, we have actually reached an agreement on the text that has already been said.
Regarding how to negotiate this with North Korea in the future, South Korea and the United States are continuing close discussions. Although North Korea’s response is the key, North Korea will respond positively to our proposal sooner or later, as North Korea has already reached an agreement at the 2018 Inter-Korean Summit on how to declare an end to the war as the first step to replace the armistice with a peace treaty. I expect it to come.
[앵커]
Okay. Minister of Foreign Affairs Chung Eui-yong, I will listen until today. Thank you.
