Page 202 - 2018 Defense White Paper

Defense came to the ROK and visited key defense organizations, including the Korea Institute for

Defense Analyses (KIDA), and studied the ROK’s defense development history and experiences.
In September 2018, during the SDD, the ROK Vice Minister of National Defense held separate
meetings with the Ethiopian Vice Defense Minister and the Ugandan Minister of State for

Veteran Affairs to discuss defense cooperation. In the meeting between the ROK Vice Minister
of National Defense and the Ethiopian representatives, the two countries agreed to continue
ef forts to expand mutual defense cooperation including defense policy talks, military education

exchanges, cooperation for peacekeeping operations, and support for veterans’ af fairs programs.
The Ugandan representatives expressed appreciation for military education exchanges for young
of f icers who will lead the two countries’ future defense relations.

The MND will continue its ef forts to build the foundation for defense cooperation with key
countries in Afr ica, and to identify cooperative projects that the ROK and the African countries
can mutually pursue.

3. Implementing the New Southern Policy on the Defense Front
and Reinforcing Multilateral Security Cooperation

Various multilateral security cooperation measures are underway to jointly respond to
traditional and nontraditional threats, and to promote regional peace and stability. Multilateral

security cooperation activities have recently intensif ied because of the growing unconventional
and transnational threats that cannot be coped with alone by a single nation such as large-scale
natural and man-made disasters, terrorism, piracy, and refugee issues.

The MND has strengthened its multilateral security cooperation activities through active
participation in multilateral security forums in the Asia-Pacif ic region to promote regional peace
and stability as well as secure the international community’s support for the ROK government’s

security policies. Since 2013, the MND has attended the Halifax International Security Forum
(HISF), the largest multilateral security conference in North America, expanding the sphere of
its multilateral security cooperation efforts. Through the MND’s active participation in various

multilateral security forums and security cooperation activities, countries around the world
are increasingly showing support for the ROK government’s policies toward North Korea and
unif ication aimed at the denuclearization and establishment of permanent peace on the Korean

200 Chapter 5 Development of the ROK–U.S. Alliance, and Expansion of Defense Exchanges and Cooperation