Yoon vows to take care of overseas Koreans in ceremony launching new agency

SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Monday to thoroughly take care of Koreans living overseas, including those who left their home country when it was impoverished and remitted their earnings to help lay the foundation of the country's economic modernization.

Yoon made the remark during the launching ceremony of the Overseas Koreans Agency, a new government agency headquartered in the western port city of Incheon, tasked with supporting overseas Koreans.

"When the 7.5 million-Korean network shares necessary information and experiences by closely connecting with each other, both overseas Koreans and the Republic of Korea will grow and develop together," Yoon said, referring to South Korea by its formal name.

Yoon highlighted the contribution made by thousands of Koreans who left their home when South Korea was poor and remitted their earnings back home, including miners and nurses who migrated to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, ultimately contributing to their country's economic growth.

Furthermore, Yoon emphasized that the newly established agency would actively embrace multicultural families, overseas adoptees, and overseas Koreans residing in the country.

Yoon also mentioned a group of Korean victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

"It is the state's duty to empathize with the pain of our compatriots wherever they are in the world," he said.

Yoon became the first South Korean president to meet with Korean victims of the bombing, which occurred during Japanese colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. The meeting took place when Yoon attended a Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima in late May.

Yoon also formally appointed Lee Key-cheol, former deputy foreign minister for overseas Koreans, as the inaugural head of the agency.

khj@yna.co.kr
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