President Yoon attends the 9th ‘West Sea Defense Day’ commemoration ceremony

President Yoon attended the 9th 'West Sea Defense Day' ceremony held at the Navy's 2nd Fleet Command located in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do on March 22 to commemorate the 55 heroes who defended the West Sea, and requested that the country maintain an ironclad readiness posture against threats from North Korea. In his commemorative speech, he paid tribute to the heroes who protected the free Republic of Korea and expressed deep condolences to the bereaved families who lost their loved ones and to the veterans who lost their comrades. He mentioned the majesty of the Marine Corps that protected Yeonpyeong Island along with the Shin Cheonan, which was revived as a frigate with stronger combat power after 13 years, and the 6 Braves (Yun Young-ha, Han Sang-guk, Jo Cheon-hyeong, Hwang Do-hyeon, Seo Hoo-won, and Park Dong-hyeok).

He emphasized that the noble military spirit and fighting spirit of the 55 fallen warriors are still protecting the West Sea. He said that North Korea is constantly threatening the West Sea even after brutal provocations, and that it has not hesitated to make threats, calling us the 'number one enemy' and 'the unchanging main enemy', starting with hundreds of artillery fires into the West Sea since the beginning of this year. He stated that North Korea is escalating tensions in the West Sea by defining the NLL, which South and North Korea has recognized as the de facto maritime boundary for over 70 years, as illegal and talking about a new maritime border. He said, “Fake peace achieved through compromise will put our security at greater risk, so our military must maintain an iron readiness posture against threats from North Korea and respond immediately and overwhelmingly to any provocation to protect the freedom of the Republic of Korea and its people.” He also made it clear that he will strengthen the ROK-U.S. alliance and security cooperation between Korea, the U.S. and Japan, and continue to expand solidarity with allies and the international community.

Yoon co-chairs the 3rd Democracy Summit

On March 20, President Yoon attended the 3rd Democracy Summit hosted by video by our government and gave an opening speech along with the leaders of Denmark and Kenya, the co-hosts, and held a second session under the theme of 'Technology, Elections, and Fake News.' The summit was attended by a total of 36 top officials, including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who co-chaired the meeting, Kenyan President William Ruto, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In his opening speech in English, he emphasized that democracy has dramatically promoted individual freedom and rights in our generation and has become the foundation for world peace and prosperity, and that it is necessary to better cultivate the great legacy of democracy and pass it on to future generations, and to promote democracy to the younger generation.

Yoon also warned that although our lives are becoming more convenient day by day due to the rapid development of artificial intelligence and big data, fake news is causing social conflict and division and threatening elections, the foundation of democracy. He emphasized that the international community must work together to establish laws and systems that strictly deal with fake news and strictly enforce the law against forces that try to influence elections in other countries across borders. He also said that we need to jointly create an AI and digital system to detect and combat fake news, and that a strong and systematic public relations campaign to jointly respond to false information. Lastly, Yoon announced that in order to contribute to the promotion of democracy in developing countries, Korea will promote development cooperation projects worth $100 million over three years starting this year in areas such as e-government, digital technology capabilities, transparency, and anti-corruption.