Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Organizational Restructuring: 'Korean Peninsula Headquarters → Expanded to Diplomatic Strategy Headquarters'

The Korean Peninsula Task Force is from Vice Minister to Director Level

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reorganized its headquarters by adding an intelligence analysis unit to the 'Korean Peninsula Peace Negotiation Headquarters,' which has been responsible for North Korean nuclear negotiations, expanding it into the 'Diplomatic Strategic Intelligence Headquarters.'

On the 28th, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the revised 'Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Its Affiliated Agencies Organization Act' and 'Enforcement Rules of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Its Affiliated Agencies Organization Act' expanded and reorganized the Korean Peninsula Peace Negotiation Headquarters into the Diplomatic Strategic Intelligence Headquarters. Under it, four bureaus were established: the Diplomatic Strategy Planning Bureau, Diplomatic Intelligence Planning Bureau, Korean Peninsula Policy Bureau, and International Security Bureau. Through this reorganization, the Ministry aims to respond to global complex crisis situations and changes in the geopolitical environment, and to implement South Korea's foreign policy with a more agile and sophisticated perspective.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building, Jongno-gu, Seoul

The newly established Diplomatic Intelligence Planning Bureau is an organization responsible for collecting and analyzing information worldwide, tasked with providing timely necessary information to key policymakers. In the long term, it plans to develop into a stage that provides information services that also assist the activities of corporations and private organizations. Within the Diplomatic Strategy Planning Bureau, the Indo-Pacific Strategy Division was newly established as a dedicated unit to oversee and review the implementation of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, South Korea's first comprehensive regional strategy.

The Korean Peninsula Policy Bureau has taken over the duties of the former Korean Peninsula Peace Negotiation Headquarters. The Korean Peninsula Peace Negotiation Headquarters, which was a vice-ministerial level organization with a '2 bureaus and 4 divisions' structure, has been downsized to a director-general level organization with a '1 bureau and 3 divisions' structure. The downsizing of the Korean Peninsula Peace Negotiation Headquarters, which started as a temporary organization in 2006 and became a permanent body in 2011, reflects the significantly changed diplomatic environment regarding North Korean nuclear issues. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official explained the change in the Korean Peninsula affairs organization by saying, "While maintaining an unwavering policy of denuclearization of North Korea, we have reorganized to strengthen the capacity to perform tasks based on universal values such as North Korean human rights and support for defectors."

International security tasks, which had been scattered within the ministry, were unified under the International Security Bureau. Additionally, the existing Multilateral Diplomacy Coordinator was reorganized into the 'Global Multilateral Diplomacy Coordinator,' and considering the importance of nuclear affairs, the International Organizations Bureau was renamed the 'International Organizations and Nuclear Affairs Bureau.'

In the Development Cooperation Bureau, a Development Cooperation Policy Officer was newly established to institutionally strengthen international cooperation and inter-ministerial collaboration related to development cooperation tasks. Also, a dedicated Economic Security Diplomacy Division was newly created to focus on promoting economic security diplomacy.

Furthermore, the Northeast Asia Bureau was reorganized into the Northeast and Central Asia Bureau, with the establishment of a Central Asia Division under it, marking a regional bureau system reorganization.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official explained the organizational reorganization by stating, "It was carried out by reorganizing existing organizations under the government's efficiency policy and reinvesting in necessary areas," adding, "It is a measure to more effectively realize the government's vision of a 'global pivotal state' and to respond more strategically to complex challenges in the rapidly changing international environment."