South Korean President Park Geun-hye will deliver her vision of peaceful unification as an ultimate resolution for peace on the Korean Peninsula during her four-day visit to New York later this week, her top aide on foreign affairs said Wednesday.
Park is scheduled to give three keynote speeches while attending the United Nations General Assembly and the Sustainable Development Summit, according to Ju Chul-ki, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs. The president will seek global cooperation on her drive to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions through a multilateral diplomatic platform, while dealing sternly with its provocations.
“The upcoming trip to the U.N. will be crucial for seeking cooperation and understanding of the international community for our foreign policy aimed at achieving peaceful unification of the Koreas and regional security, as well as global prosperity,” said Ju.
Park is set to visit New York at a critical time with inter-Korean tensions growing since last week after Pyongyang hinted that it would launch a long-range rocket next month. The trip is also seen as a prelude to her planned trip to Washington in mid-October. She plans to hold a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama to consolidate the bilateral ties at the highest level to effectively press North Korea to abandon its continued development of nuclear weapons, and make Pyongyang return to the long-stalled six-party talks.
The North’s space development agency indicated that it would launch a “satellite” on Oct. 10 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the foundation of its ruling Workers’ Party.
Park will clear her official schedule before she leaves Friday to be well prepared at the U.N., where she will meet leaders from China, Russia and U.S., crucial members of the international community, to seek a solution to North Korea’s nuclear standoff. She will also be meeting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon several times during her stay in New York, Ju said without providing details of the meetings.
On the sidelines of the U.N. meetings, Park will hold separate summits with leaders of Pakistan and Denmark, to diversify South Korea’s economic ties and export markets.
Park’s top economic aide, Ahn Chong-bum told reporters that the summits are set to discuss ways to better deal with climate change and to expand joint economic development. He said the South Korean government expects to generate potential business opportunities through the summits, citing Pakistan’s state projects to build large-scale power plants and Denmark’s plan to expand infrastructure investments on traffic tunnels and the transportation system.
On her first day, Park is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the U.N. summit designed to discuss the post-2015 development agenda. The event is bringing leaders from around the world together to launch the U.N.’s new agenda for the next 15 years, a follow-up to the Millennium Development Goals implemented from 2001 to 2015 to eradicate extreme poverty.
The president plans to discuss ways to forge legally binding deals to cut greenhouse gas emissions before the U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP21, to be held in Paris later this year.
Park is set to address the U.N. General Assembly on Monday to represent South Korea’s stance on a wide range of global agenda items, as well as her North Korea policies.
Before returning to Seoul, the president also plans to visit a Korean culture center in the city to encourage artists, officials and also commercial companies that have been striving to promote Korean brands and culture on the global stage.
By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)
