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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Tuesday set three key goals: to consolidate the South Korea-U.S. alliance, resolve the North Korean nuclear problem and secure natural resources.
After a 20-minute briefing, "resource diplomacy" became the sole theme of a 50-minute discussion chaired by President Lee Myung-bak. The debate did not address the North Korean nuclear problem, the nation's biggest security-related issue.
Lee said the Foreign Ministry should play a central role in pursuing resource diplomacy, which he called ¡°inevitable¡± and ¡°the core¡± of a pragmatic diplomacy. As ways to implement it, the ministry proposed establishing an energy cooperative belt with nations with ample natural resources, like Russia, Central Asian countries, Central, South American countries and Southeast Asian countries.
The president will preside over a meeting of ambassadors to countries rich in natural resources in the first half of the year. The government will increase the number of embassies to resource-rich countries from the current 32 to 50.
The ministry also plans to set up new embassies in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kyrgyzstan. It will re-station diplomatic staffers from advanced countries to resource-rich countries.
By contrast, the ministry presented no detailed ways to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem, merely reaffirming the principle that it will not resume six-party nuclear talks before North Korea fully and accurately declares its nuclear programs and stockpiles. A ministry official said the North Korean nuclear problem was not even brought up since discussions on resource diplomacy took up all the time.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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