South Korea will leverage its manufacturing and defense industry capabilities to make the world safer and prosper together, while fulfilling its responsibilities in maintaining world peace, providing humanitarian aid and responding to disasters, Prime Minister Han Seong-sook said Tuesday.
Han made the remark in a keynote speech at the Seoul Defense Dialogue, an annual security forum that South Korea's defense ministry has hosted since 2012, noting that wars and conflicts in one region are never limited to that area but reach far beyond in a closely intertwined world, and that peace is the fundamental foundation for economic growth.
"We have come to an era where, even if war breaks out outside our country, it has tremendous economic effects on our country and the people's livelihoods," Han said. "President Lee Jae Myung emphasizes that prosperity can never happen based only on economic growth, but it must be backed up by a stable and peaceful world order."
The "irreplaceable Republic of Korea" that the government of President Lee aims to build is not a country that moves forward alone, but one that seeks mutual interests through pragmatic diplomacy centered on national interest while pursuing peaceful coexistence and mutual prosperity, Han added.
"We will utilize the Republic of Korea's world-class advanced manufacturing capabilities, the competitiveness of its defense industry, the experience of democratization, and the power of K-culture to build a safer and more prosperous world," Han said. "We will also fulfill our responsibilities in peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, disaster response, and reconstruction."
South Korea will work to build peace on the Korean Peninsula, but the peace will not remain confined to the peninsula alone, she said, as it will be extended to Northeast Asia and ultimately contribute to world peace and mutual prosperity. (Yonhap)
