Yun to attend China-led security forum
By Yi Whan-woo
Yun Byung-se Foreign Minister
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will attend a China-led regional security forum that will begin in Beijing, Wednesday.
During the two-day Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building in Asia (CICA), Yun will focus on convincing former communist nations to prevent another North Korean nuclear test, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.
On the sidelines of the forum, he is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Wednesday, and with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Thursday.
Yun will be the first South Korean foreign minister to attend a CICA meeting since Seoul joined the forum involving 26 member states.
The participating countries include Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Krygystnan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Some of the countries maintain friendly ties with North Korea although Pyongyang is not a CICA member state.
China, which holds a two-year rotating chairmanship of CICA, has sought to develop it as a security cooperation tool against the U.S.-led security order in the region, according to diplomatic sources.
Due to Seoul’s ties Washington, no South Korean presidents or foreign ministers have participated in previous meetings.
“I think it is quite important, in a timely manner, to win international support and cooperation concerning North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations,” Yun told reporters, Monday. “I want to persuade participants at CICA to include warnings against Pyongyang’s provocations in conclusive documents after the meeting.”
The CICA meeting is held every two years. This year the meeting takes place amid growing signs that North Korea will defy the United Nations again and carry out a fifth nuclear test soon.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Yun is set to deliver a key note speech, Thursday, concerning countermeasures against North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
He will also urge CICA members to implement U.N. Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2270. The UNSC unanimously approved it, March 2, in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and an alleged satellite launch using ballistic missile technology, Feb. 7.
Analysts were optimistic about Yun participating in the CICA meeting.
“A number of CICA member states still maintain friendly relationships with North Korea and Yun’s visit will offer South Korea a chance to convince them to stand on our side and step up in pressing the North,” said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong University.
A professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy echoed a similar view.
“Beijing wants to make sure it plays a leading role in security in Asia, and it’s worthwhile for a South Korean foreign minister to show up at a CICA meeting and use all possible means to draw support,” he said on condition of anonymity.
A researcher at the Sejong Institute pointed out that the success of UNSC sanctions depends on support from China, North Korea’s largest benefactor.
“China controls the oil supply and flow of hard currency into North Korea. In this climate, I’d say Yun’s trip is being made in a timely manner,” he said, asking not to be named.
Meanwhile, Yun will also bring up issues on President Park Geun-hye’s signature project, the Eurasia Initiative at the CICA meeting.
The project requires support from CICA member states because it is aimed at establishing an inter-Korean railroad connecting to Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railway, and on to Western Europe.
The feasibility of the projects has been under doubt following the latest UNSC sanctions.
Two South Korean vice foreign ministers ― Shin Gak-soo and Kim Sung-han ― attended CICA foreign ministerial meetings in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
In 2014, then-Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae participated in the CICA summit in Shanghai representing President Park Geun-hye.