Ladies and gentlemen! I am very delighted to have the opportunity to welcome you to the Korea Forum today. I want to thank you for participating in this very meaningful Forum.
First, I would like to congratulate the International Institute for Strategic Studies on its 50th anniversary. Since its establishment in 1958, the IISS has made a tremendous contribution to peace and security throughout the world including Asia.
The Korea Forum also commemorates the inauguration of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies this last February. Asan, as you know, is the penname of my late father, Chairman Chung Ju-Young, who not only founded and made Hyundai the company that it is today, but he also dedicated his life to developing greater prosperity, peace and welfare for Korea and the rest of the world. Asan is also the name of my father’s hometown near Geumgang-san, which is located just north of the DMZ in Eastern Korea. The Asan Institute was established in order to promote peace and security, including human security, and to make a contribution towards further narrowing and bridging the gap between the rich and the poor. The Institute also strives to find different ways of peacefully integrating and reunifying a divided Korea.
The convening of the Korea Forum, under the umbrella title, “Korea in the Emerging Power Balance,” is extremely appropriate and important now, particularly in its timing and the subject matter that will be covered over the next two days. A quick review of the media headlines during the last couple of weeks will illustrate how volatile the global situation is today. The titles of these headlines are as follows:
-
The War in Georgia Exposes the Fault Lines in NATO.
-
Lehman Brothers Declares Bankruptcy
-
Bush Wants Ok to Spend $700 billion for [an economic] Bailout.
-
Kim Jong-Il’s Illness Alerts its Neighbors and the United States.
-
Pyongyang Restarts Nuclear Plant Work.
-
U.S. Bombs Taliban Positions in Pakistan.
-
Al Qaeda Vows More U.S. Attacks.
-
Marriott Hotel Destroyed in Largest Islamabad Blast
-
The Price of Oil Fluctuates like a Rollercoaster.
-
The Debate Heats up on Global Warming and Climate Change.
These headlines reveal that there are plenty of crises in the world, both present and looming. Those headlines also demonstrate in a dramatic fashion that we should be prepared for many different contingencies and that we must seek to construct a viable international architecture to resolve such problems. As we match these headlines with the Agenda of the Korea Forum, which will deal with global security issues, inter-Korea relations, Korean-American relations, energy security, and the Six-Party Talks focusing on the denuclearization of Korea, we know immediately how timely and important this Korea Forum is.
I anticipate and hope that we will have extremely productive discussions during the next two days. I also hope that all the participants, particularly those participants who came from abroad, find the conference and visit to Korea both hospitable and enjoyable.
Thank you.
