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Korean President Park reaffirms support for GGGI and Green Growth to U.N. Sec. Gen

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The President Exchanges New Year`s Greetings by Phone with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

President Park Geun-hye received a phone call from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this morning. They exchanged New Year`s greetings and discussed Korea-United Nations cooperation and issues of mutual interest.
Secretary-General Ban said he wished President Park good health and the Republic of Korea greater prosperity under her leadership in the Year of the Sheep. He also thanked her for attending the UN General Assembly last year and co-chairing a meeting on finance at the UN Climate Summit 2014. In addition, he said he was deeply impressed by her leadership in the multinational arena, including the G20 Summit and the East Asia Summit.

Notably, Secretary-General Ban expressed his appreciation to the President for the commitment of up to US$100 million to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which helped prompt other countries to provide their share to the fund so that it could raise more than US$10 billion.

In response, President Park said she looked forward to the United Nations achieving its key goals outlined in Secretary-General Ban’s New Year’s message, including the conclusion, within this year, of an agreement on climate change and the accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goals. She went on to say that the Korean Government would, for its part, continue to provide necessary support.

Secretary-General Ban said that the UN had the great tasks of helping conclude a new convention on climate change and set new goals for sustainable development in this important year marking the 70th anniversaries of the foundation of the United Nations and Korea`s liberation. With regards to the United Nations Summit to adopt the post-2015 development agenda and the 70th UN General Assembly, both to be held in September this year, the Secretary-General expressed the hope that President Park would be able to find time to attend these gatherings and play a leading role through diplomatic engagement.

In reply, President Park said that, based on the achievements of the UN Climate Summit, she looked forward to the launch of a new climate change regime at the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris, France. The President went on to say that Korea, as the host of the GCF and Global Green Growth Institute, would not spare any effort in working together to capitalize the GCF fund and present new development models to developing nations.

President Park said that, even though Korea`s tenure as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council ended last year, Korea would actively join forces with the UN for the sake of world peace and security. The President continued to say that the National Assembly has recently approved the extension of the deployment of South Korean troops to Lebanon and South Sudan and that Korea was actively supporting the UN initiatives for poverty eradication, sustainable development and educational development. Expressing her appreciation to the Secretary-General for the invitation to the UN Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, she said that she would look into the possibility of participating.

With regard to the Ebola outbreak, President Park said it was fortunate that the crisis appeared to be stabilizing to some degree under the leadership of the Secretary-General and the united efforts of the international community. She thanked Secretary-General Ban for his message of encouragement to the Korean emergency response team dispatched to Sierra Leone, telling him that the first team had commenced its activities and that preparations were underway to dispatch a second and third team.

Secretary-General Ban gave a high assessment of Korea’s valuable contributions to the work of the UN, including the successful completion of its term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, the commencing of its activities as a member country of the UN Economic and Social Council and its active contribution to fighting Ebola.

He told the President that he had immediately released an official statement of support following her proposal for inter-Korean dialogue through the Unification Preparatory Committee and said he would make every effort to provide whatever support he could as Secretary-General to help improve the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

President Park thanked Secretary-General Ban for his statement and said she looked forward to his support in the days ahead so that the Korean Government would be able to partner with the UN to work together for the resumption of dialogue and the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue as a means to bring about a fundamental improvement in inter-Korean relations, address the human rights situation and provide expanded support to improve the lives of the North Korean people.

– See more at: http://english1.president.go.kr/activity/briefing.php?srh%5Bview_mode%5D=detail&srh%5Bseq%5D=9070#sthash.TFD4PTPG.dpuf