Dear Korea CQ members,

On May 3, we had a special lecture about ‘The rapidly changing world situation and Korea in the future’ by Kim Won-soo, former UN Deputy Secretary-General and Chairman of the International Advisory Committee of Yeosijae at the Hungarian Cultural Center in Seoul.

H.E. Mozes Csoma, Sunmi Nam, Wonsoo Kim, Medvigy István, Richard Choi, Kwonha Ryu, Eungyeong Na, Jungho Nam, Youn Jung Park, András Szűts, Sanjay Kumar, Sunhwa Dong, Crystal Park, Choi Jungwha, and Didier Beltoise attended this forum. 

The Hungarian Ambassador gave a warm welcome and thanked everyone who came.

Prior to the meal, Medvigy István, Director of the Hungarian Cultural Center, kindly gave an introduction to Hungarian wine.

We had a dinner with flavorful food, dessert and Hungarian wine prepared with great care by the the Ambassador.

After the meal, CICI President Choi Jungwha shared news on members, followed by a special lecture by Wonsoo Kim on ‘The rapidly changing world situation and Korea in the future.’

Wonsoo Kim served as the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Secretary-General for International Security and Foreign Affairs at the Blue House, and Director-General for Policy Planning at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Throught the lecture, we were able to learn about national defense, security, and world issues.

A lively Q&A session followed the lecture.

We would like to thank Wonsoo Kim for his informative lecture, and H.E. Mozes Csoma and Sunmi Nam for inviting us to the Hungarian Cultural Center for this wonderful gathering.

We would also like to express thanks to all members who attended despite their busy schedules, as well as Crystal Park for her interpretation help.

For more pictures, please click the link below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9mXWLt1dcKud5zvq9

Challenges and diplomatic missions facing the new government 

by Kim Wonsoo

How challenging is the security and foreign policy environment facing the new government, and what policy options are there? Since the 110 national tasks of the new government were announced today, I think this question is very timely and important. 18 of the 110 tasks are related to diplomacy and security, accounting for about 16% of the total.

From my point of view, the security environment for the new government is the worst since the Korean War.

The challenges lie in the hyper-uncertainty of the security aspects.

- The next president of the Republic of Korea is in an even worse situation.

1) Uncertainties from the outside originating from the global, regional, and Korean Peninsula levels

a) US-China confrontation expected to continue into the future

b) Russian invasion of Ukraine

c) Difficulties at the local level due to the COVID-19 situation

2) Social division, gender conflict, conflict between disabled and non-disabled people, and deepening economic inequality are promoting political polarization. In the last presidential election, the difference in votes was only 0.7%p, but this has never happened before. This is proof that Korea is divided and polarized.

- Heretofore, there was a solid consensus supporting our security and foreign policy decisions during external crises, but this is not the case now.

- The double whammy at home and abroad is causing unprecedented ultra-uncertainty, and greatly shrinking the scope of the new administration's foreign and security policies.

Diplomatic challenges ahead:

There are no magic bullets in diplomacy, and every choice has its downsides.

- Strengthening alliances comes at a price. Strengthening our alliances creates an obligation to help our allies in times that wouldn’t so be beneficial to us. If we don't help, our allies will lose confidence in our country, and we may not get help when we really need it.

We have no choice but to focus on basic diplomacy.

- We must prepare for the worst through early warning, credible crisis management, and scenario-based contingency plans for enhanced preparedness.

- We need to set the domestic order right through bipartisan consultations and public diplomacy.

- We must work with allies and partners. We must work to expand our alliance pool, and we need more impartial partners.

- We must go towards the world. I am pleased that global values are reflected in the new government's policy blueprint. We must work with countries that share the same interests.

Q. Csoma Mózes, Hungarian Ambassador to Korea: You said that the situation around the Korean Peninsula seems more precarious than during the Korean War. By the way, wasn't the situation more terrible in 1968 when the Kim Shin-jo Incident, the Pueblo Incident, and the Uljin-Samcheok Incident all happened, and the Vietnam War was in progress?

A. I agree that Koreans must have felt very threatened at that time, but at that time, a consensus was formed among the people. I am concerned that our people are currently divided over tensions despite risks coming from various directions and dimensions. And now, Korea's global status has changed a lot. In the past, Korea could not even stand on the international stage, but now it has entered the top 10 economy and is recognized worldwide. A. South Korea's defense spending is much higher than in the past, so we should be much safer. But the problem is that in international relations, everything is relative. Our neighboring countries, such as China, have also grown so much that our country is still the smallest in the region. In terms of military power, the countries located in the northern and western parts of the Korean Peninsula possess nuclear weapons that we do not have.

Q. Choi Jungwha, CICI President: French President Emmanuel Macron was recently re-elected. As in his last presidential campaign, he ran against Marine Le Pen, but the difference in the vote was much smaller than before. French President Emmanuel Macron was recently re-elected. As in his last presidential campaign, he ran against Marine Le Pen, but the difference in the vote was much smaller than before. Some analyzed that while President Macron was focusing on external issues, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the far-right party was able to win a lot of votes by paying attention to domestic issues and captivating the public. It seems that not only France, but also the people of the United States and Korea want the government to focus more on domestic politics. What do you think about this?

A. That's right. Such problems are not unique to France. A reversal happened twice in the US as well. It was when Trump won and when Trump lost. American society is polarizing. I’m afraid that the number of far-right or far-leftists will outnumber centrists. Not only the radical right, but also the radical left is growing, and the number of centrists is decreasing. In almost every country, the middle class is shrinking, and as the middle class shrinks, I think there will be fewer centrists as well. In Korea before, the far left was 20%, the far right was 20%, and the centrist was 60%. But now there are only 40% of the far left, 40% of the far right, and 20% of the centrists. This has been shown in the election results, and I am concerned that this is happening in most democracies. Political polarization is a social ill because populism and hate speech are rampant and there is currently no real discussion on policy. In political polarization, politicians try to win votes with extreme slogans and are not interested in solving problems. This is not a real democracy. How can we prevent the arrival of totalitarianism if we do not address the rise of populism and deepening polarization in democracies?

Q. Didier Beltoise, President of Cs: I think the UN's role is related to concerns about the lack of communication between great powers, such as the Security Council. The Security Council has become dysfunctional, unable to even meet with each other. The General Assembly voted on the resolution several times, but it did not take effect. At one time, the Security Council used to hold closed meetings to talk freely and come together to find common ground. But now communication between the Security Council countries has disappeared. How can we end conflict if we don't even talk to each other? I am very concerned. If the United Nations fails to recover its vital function, it will meet the same fate as the League of Nations. The League of Nations was created to prevent World War II, but war eventually broke out, and the United Nations was created to prevent another world war. So, we gave the veto to the world's five major powers so that they could find a common solution through dialogue. But now they are refusing to talk to each other. So what will be the fate of the United Nations? And what will that leave us with?

The sequence we are taking now is very similar to what was between the two world wars. Then there was the Spanish flu, the Great Depression, the failure of the League of Nations, and Hitler's invasion. Therefore, the UN must regain its function before it is too late. The Secretary-General visited Ukraine and Moscow to find a common solution, but I think it's already too late. Both the United States and the European Union (EU) need real leadership. Perhaps the real problem is the lack of global leadership, which is needed more than ever.