1. First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam, together with State Secretary Morten Hoglund of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held the eighth Republic of Korea-Norway policy consultation at the ROK Foreign Ministry on October 27. In the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on a wide range of matters, including their bilateral relations; and ways to promote substantive cooperation in shipbuilding, maritime affairs and defense industry; and ways to work together on the Arctic as well as on situations in diverse regions of the world, including the Korean Peninsula, and on the international stage.

2. The Vice Minister and the State Secretary noted with appreciation that the ROK has become Norway’s second-largest trading partner in Asia after the two countries have continuously increased cooperation across the board as “trusted partners” through exchanges between high-level officials and the private sectors. They agreed to further step up substantive cooperation in shipbuilding and maritime affairs and to continuously seek a bilateral social security agreement to promote exchanges between business people.

◦ In particular, they noted that the ROK and Norway, by combining the former’s shipbuilding capacity and the latter’s cutting-edge ship parts, have become two of the most competitive shipbuilding powerhouses in the world, calling shipbuilding and maritime affairs the areas of successful bilateral cooperation between the two countries. The two sides agreed to accelerate the diversification of cooperation into such fields as the development of environmentally-friendly vessels.

3. The two sides agreed that their two countries will work closely together on the international stage as like-minded countries that share such universal values as democracy and human rights. They also agreed to activate the regularly-convened high-level consultative mechanism between the ROK and the Nordic countries in order to jointly prepare for the Arctic era and collaborate on international issues, including climate change and development cooperation.

4. With regard to cooperation on the Arctic, State Secretary Hoglund commended the ROK for its robust research activities on the Arctic at its Arctic Dasan Station on Norway’s Svalbard Islands and the ROK-Norway Cooperative Polar Research Centre in the Norwegian city of Tromso. He proposed that going forward, the two countries further step up consultations and research activities on the Arctic. He suggested that to that end, the two countries hold their bilateral consultation on Arctic policy on a regular basis and that the ROK attend the Arctic Frontiers Conference.

◦ The ROK side highlighted the importance of cooperation on the Arctic for fulfilling the ROK’s Eurasia Initiative, designed to enhance connectivity between Europe and Asia; and explained in detail the ROK government’s Arctic policy and plan to bolster its activities as an observer of the Arctic Council.

5. Vice Minister Lim explained in detail the ROK government’s trustpolitic policies, including the Trust-Building Process on the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative. In addition, he extended appreciation to Norway for its consistent support for the ROK government’s policy toward North Korea, and asked Norway to play a constructive role in preventing North Korea from launching an additional provocation and in leading the country to abandon its nuclear programs. With regard to North Korean issues, State Secretary Hoglund agreed to work closely with the ROK government.

6. The ROK-Norway policy consultation is a high-level meeting that came only two months after the bilateral Foreign Ministers’ meeting, held in late August on the sidelines of the foreign ministerial Conference on Global Leadership in the Arctic: Cooperation, Innovation, Engagement and Resilience (GLACIER). It is seen to have served as an opportunity to continuously boost the ROK-Norway cooperation on the bilateral, regional and global levels.


* unofficial translation