Yungho Kim, the Minister of Unification, elaborates on the ROK’s vision of a “free and peaceful, unified Korea.” He emphasizes that the Trilateral Camp David Summit in August 2023 marked a significant milestone for the ROK’s North Korea policy, reaffirming the “values-based” approach that prioritizes freedom, democracy, and human rights. Acknowledging that the ROK’s vision cannot be realized without securing human rights and freedom of the North Korean residents, the Ministry strives to raise global awareness on the issue. The ways in which ROK resolves such an issue should be multifaceted according to Kim, including promoting constructive roles from China and Russia, coordinating with international organizations like the UN, and depoliticizing the provision of humanitarian aid. Assessing his first 100 days in office as a period of internal restructuring to conduct effective unification diplomacy, Minister Kim reiterates the Ministry’s commitment to achieve North Korea’s complete denuclearization, human rights improvement, greater international consensus towards the ROK’s vision of free and peaceful, unified Korea, and defector settlement support.

The East Asia Institute (EAI) hosted an international conference addressing escalating concerns about emerging security issues and strategies to tackle them. This conference aimed to comprehensively explore the security challenges accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic and offer policy recommendations to Korea and the global community. Experts from diverse regions and academic perspectives discussed the direction of responses to current and forthcoming challenges.

EAI cooperated with the Government of the Republic of Korea to devise its Indo-Pacific Strategy and organize “The Action Plan for a Free, Peaceful, and Prosperous Indo-Pacific of the ROK” Forum, in light of the first anniversary of announcing the first comprehensive regional strategy. EAI put together an international forum, in which speakers presented strategic action plans for the international policy community. As part of this project, EAI took charge in monitoring the implementation of Indo-Pacific strategies in key stakeholder countries and translating the government`s progress reports and action plans into English.