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Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min is visiting Japan and Hawaii, USA to strengthen cooperation on disaster response and the excavation of remains of forced mobilization victims.

On the 5th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that from this day until the 9th, the 'Public Administration Cooperation Team,' led by Minister Lee, will visit Japan and Hawaii, USA.

As the first schedule, the cooperation team will visit Tokyo, Japan, to meet with Yoshifumi Matsumura, Minister in charge of Disaster Management at the Cabinet Office, to share disaster response policies such as flood and wind damage, and to inspect the excellent detention pipe construction site in Toda City, Saitama Prefecture. Toda City is a lowland area near the Arakawa River that is proactively fostering 'middle school disaster prevention officers' and exemplary in maintaining disaster prevention facilities to prepare for flood and wind damage risks.

They will also visit the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to discuss local government system reforms and innovation plans through digital transformation with Takeaki Matsumoto, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications. The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has shown interest in Korea’s Digital Platform Government, which ranked first overall in the 2023 OECD Digital Government Evaluation.

In Hawaii, a memorandum of understanding will be signed to establish a cooperative relationship for the excavation and identification of remains of forced mobilization victims in the Pacific region. The Korean government has closely cooperated with the U.S. DPAA since 2019, resulting in the identification and repatriation of the remains of forced mobilization victim (the late Choi Byung-yeon) in December 2023, the first such case in the Pacific region. The signing ceremony will be attended by Minister Lee, Deputy Minister Kim Min-jae, officials from the National Forensic Service, and Kelly McKeague, Director of the U.S. Department of Defense DPAA, where they will also discuss cooperation plans to expand the repatriation of forced mobilization victims in the Pacific region.

Additionally, they will visit the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency to discuss cooperation plans for disaster management using science and technology with Director Kines Hara. Hawaii suffered significant damage last August due to a large wildfire in the Lahaina area of Maui Island, resulting in over 100 deaths and damage to 3,000 structures. Minister Lee stated, "Through this dispatch of the Public Administration Cooperation Team, cooperation among Korea, the U.S., and Japan in the field of disaster management will advance to a higher level," adding, "We will share advanced disaster safety policies and experiences and strengthen international cooperation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.