Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae left Monday for his first trip to the U.S. since taking office, seeking to intensify bilateral coordination on North Korea policy with the top ally and other international agencies.
During a weeklong stay, he is scheduled for a series of consultations with senior Washington officials and lawmakers such as Acting Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman; Marco Rubio, a Florida senator and member of a congressional subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific affairs; and Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Relations. Ryoo will also meet with numerous Korea experts at a seminar hosted by the East Asia Institute and on other occasions.
It will be the first visit by a South Korean unification minister since a 2011 trip by Yu Woo-ik. In May, he traveled to Shanghai to take part in the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia as his maiden ministerial excursion.
“The minister plans to confer on the political situations in Northeast Asia and North Korea, as well as the direction for North Korea policy, while having opportunities to communicate with Korean Peninsula experts,” ministry spokesman Lim Byeong-cheol told a regular news briefing.
In New York, Ryoo is expected to discuss humanitarian assistance with officials from international agencies including the U.N. Development Program, the U.N. Children’s Fund and the U.N. Population Fund.
Prior to returning to Seoul on Dec. 14, he will stop in Los Angeles to help raise awareness about unification policy through lectures for youths and meetings with educators.
The visit represents Seoul’s efforts to drum up world support for an eventual integration of the two Koreas aside from nuclear issues by stepping up dialogue with neighbors and other key members of the international community.
President Park Geun-hye has set unification as the centerpiece of her second-year presidency, saying a unified Korea would bring about a “bonanza” to not only the peninsula but the region and the world, and a chance for the national economy to take a leap forward.
With Pyongyang regarding a set of bilateral sanctions as a major obstacle for a cross-border thaw, Ryoo may discuss ways to tackle humanitarian concerns such as separated families while minimizing the possible side effects of a lifting of the bans.
By Shin Hyon-hee (
heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
