Looking back on the history of last 60 years of Korea’s foreign policies, we can see that the government had placed emphasis on the establishment of new government and international acknowledgement and then, during 1950~1953, given weight to the rig...
Looking back on the history of last 60 years of Korea’s foreign policies, we can see that the government had placed emphasis on the establishment of new government and international acknowledgement and then, during 1950~1953, given weight to the right to live of the nation and to the fundamentals for national security.
Then, rehabilitating after the Korean War in the 1950’s, initiating the economic development in the 1960’s, making inroads into the world market and stepping forward to the economic growth in the 1970’s, and leaping forward uponthe threshold of leading developing countries in the 1980’s, Korea’s diplomacy has taken a significant role for national security, economic development and the prestige of the nation, meeting the demands of the times.
In the course of Korea’s diplomacy has tracked down, the United Nations stood there as a main diplomatic arena the U.N. was the diplomatic front line which was, at that time, more important than anything else for Korea to secure the country’s international-political status while its vigor is concentrated on the establishment of Republic of Korea, the Korean War and the cease-fire agreement, and the competition with North Korea during the Cold War lasting up until 1991 about when Korean government finally joined in the U.N. community.
Somehow it may safely to be said that Korea foreign affairs were consequently all about the relationship with the U.N.
So far, the government has extended the domain of its foreign affairs up to the international scope in politics, economy, society, culture and peace.
Followed by the changes in the global situations and the changes within the organization itself, no longer is the U.N. thought to be a place for confrontation against North Korea, it has rather become a place where Korea government to reinforce the world wide popularity and to contribute to the world as a leading economic country.
After the cold war, Korea is now a member of the U.N. and the people in the peninsula are living in the era, so-called globalization.
One nation’s matter is not limited in that nation only and has become an interest of all other countries in the globe. That is, almost everything is closely related to each other in many issues such as life and death, prosperity and the quality of life and more precisely war and peace, trade and finance, poverty and development, security and human rights, disarmament and environmental problems and so on.
Foreign policies are not a matter of option but a necessary process.
To come up with a better solution for these problems, the world is stressing the importance of a sense of diversity and the U.N. is a symbol of diversity and it itself is a composition of diverse organizations.
Therefore, the extension of the diplomatic strategies toward the U.N. is the way to lead us close to a sense of diversity and to secure an important position in the U.N. as a principle power.
To effectively prepare for the variousinternational concerns subject to a sense of diversity, it is necessary for Korean government to achieve somewhat higher status in an international society. That, however, is not enough.
Highly sophisticated intellectualanalyzing skills and negotiation skills are also required in the interactions with other countries.
As the topics of global agenda are diverse, foreign policies of one nation take more of historical conventions and domestic political culture into account than ever since.
That is why we are asked to foster more analytic and systematic groping about foreign policies on the basis of extensive and profound understanding about other par of the world’s history and political belief.
We need to practice ourselves to communicate with other ethnic groups whose language and cultural backgrounds are quite different from us and to explain persuasively so that we can effectively transfer our thoughts to them.
Being a homogeneous race brings in a shortage of varied experience while it gives many good points too.
So we should consciously strive to understand the differences in cultures and nurture the capability to transfer our thoughts to others.
The racially homogenous nation, which has gone through the centralized political atmosphere lasting for a long time, lacked an instinctive sense ofdiversity and a sense of mission.
Nowadays, the global situation has been dramatically improved and therefore it will encourage the U.N. to be flourishing with its ability to confront any upcoming challenges.
The international organization will also affect many countries in their political decisions so that the world in the near future will be the era of the international organization.
The human right gets into the spotlight as the world order advances and the U.N. will take a crucial role to safeguard the right. This signals that national interests are to follow such world order.
It is impossible to think of any of peace, property and human dignity without the U.N.’s role in this planet.
The world turned its eyes on the Korean peninsula which cultivated a surprising economic miracle and became a model for all other developing countries. The assignments, layupon us to be a 21st century’s leading member, are to insure substantiality and to accelerate the preparations to line up along with the developed countries. Based on mature considerations, it is time to commence the diplomatic strategies toward the U.N.