Topic: The Mission

Unfortunately, due to the NYC transit strike, I missed last night's marathon holiday banquet. Something new under this ambassador, the banquet consisted of a lavish buffet, a raffle at which dozens of gifts were given out, and a hired master of ceremonies who conducted interviews and game show-like activities in between speeches by just about everyone. The entire affair lasted a grueling four hours, I'm told, and for obvious reasons most of it took place in Korean, so it was hard on my speechwriting colleague.

On a different note, one of the diplomats just dropped by my office with an odd holiday gift: a yearbook-sized, fake-leather-bound 2006 "Cyprus Diary" with gilt pages. Essentially a glorified day-runner, it's obviously a production of the government of Cyprus, and includes a map of the European Union (which Cyprus recently joined), a map of Cyprus itself (undivided), and pages of basic info about the country, including a lengthy section on "The Cyprus Problem," which I haven't read.

So far, though, I'm still waiting on a new wall calendar. Last year we got one from the Korea National Tourism Organization (whose URL, , has a grammatical error) and an even bigger one from Asiana Airlines. With a week to go, though, all I've got is an awkward little "Dynamic Korea" desk calendar from the Korean OverSeas (sic) Information Service.

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Topic: The Mission

Elections were held yesterday for non-permanent seats on the Security Council for the 2006-2007 term, and today I was charged with drafting letters of congratulation from our ambassador to the ambassadors of the winning states. Because Security Council seats are alloted by region, the real horse-trading goes on within each regional group to decide which country will be put forward as the candidate, while the final election in the General Assembly is mostly a formality.

That meant that the Republic of Korea was for the most part able to support all of the winners. But there was one country that Korea voted against, having made a prior commitment to a rival. This didn't make any actual difference — the vote wasn't at all close — but it nevertheless created a certain tension when our Mission called to congratulate their Mission, or so I was told.

And so I made a slight adjustment in the congratulatory letter. Instead of saying "I look forward to continuing our work together, thus deepening our friendship and our cooperative relationship," as I had in the other letters, I changed it to "I look forward to continuing our work together in a spirit of friendship and cooperation." It's a small difference, and one that sent the diplomat who'd asked for the letters back into my office asking why I'd made the distinction. I explained that the former implied that everything is friendly and cooperative already, while the latter leaves room for the notion that the relationship may be rocky at the moment while promising that it will improve.

This is the sort of thing I do for a living.

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Topic: The Mission

So it looks like I'll be attending my first actual UN meetings in the next couple of weeks.

The Republic of Korea hosted this year's Sixth Global Forum on Reinventing Government. The theme was "Toward Participatory and Transparent Governance," and the Forum produced an outcome document, known as the Seoul Declaration, that makes recommendations on improving governance.

Now Korea is working to get a resolution passed in the General Assembly endorsing the Seoul Declaration, which would follow similar resolutions for past Global Forum outcome documents, and they're trying to gather as many cosponsor countries as possible. Which is where I come in: I'll attend two cosponsor meetings, one at the Mission and one at the UN Secretariat, taking notes as the representatives of various states make their suggestions regarding the final shape of the resolution and editing Korea's statements on the fly. This will be my first opportunity to attend a meeting with representatives of other states, and I look forward to it.

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Topic: The Mission

Today the Korea Times, the oldest English-language daily in Korea, published an editorial by Ambassador Choi Young-jin on the 2005 World Summit at the UN, which begins today. I'm excited because I played a significant role in the composition of the article. Of course, the ideas are fundamentally those of the ambassador and his diplomatic team, but I had a hand in formulating the language and even some of the substantive ideas.

Interesting editorial note: while our draft referred exclusively to "the Republic of Korea," this was changed to "South Korea" in nearly every instance, the one exception being a reference to the founding of the government of the Republic of Korea. Apparently "South Korea" is the preferred formulation of the Korea Times. The significance of this is that the Republic of Korea was founded as the one legitimate government for all of Korea, though its de facto power was only over the southern half. So while "Republic of Korea" and "South Korea" are often used interchangeably, the latter suggests implicitly that there is an equally legitimate North Korea, and as such tends to be avoided by ROK diplomats.

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Topic: The Mission

Today is my one-year anniversary at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations. Assuming I make it to work tomorrow (or on any subsequent day), this will become the second time in my entire life that I've held a job for more than a year. My teaching stint in Korea lasted precisely a year and no more, while my time at STV was mercifully cut short at 11 months. The only place I stayed longer than here was DoubleClick, where they gave me free sodas and stock options and there were video games and ridiculously hot women in the sales department.

So a year in, how's it going? No, I did not get a cake like the one in the picture. But I still love the job, and I'm getting to do substantive work regularly. The new ambassador is great, and I'm excited about the upcoming September Summit, when President Roh Moo-hyun will be in town to speak at the General Assembly alongside our own president and other world leaders. In other words, I expect to be sitting right here in two more years, telling you all that I've never held any other job for as long.

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Topic: The Mission

Tonight the Korean Mission is hosting a farewell reception for Ambassador Kim, who will be retiring at the end of the month. As part of the preparations for this event, the metal detector that usually stands in our lobby has been removed.

So far as I know, the metal detector doesn't actually serve any security purpose. People walk through (or past) it all day, and it beeps, and nothing happens. But, I thought, maybe that was because the people passing through were either staff members or approved guests. Maybe, I thought, the metal detector would actually be used for security purposes the next time we had a reception.

But no. The removal of the machine — which is, admittedly, an ugly obstacle — proves once and for all that there is no reason for its being there in the first place.

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Topic: The Mission

Beginning next month, our current Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Nations, Kim Sam-hoon, will be replaced by Dr. Choi Young-jin (pictured). The whispers around the office suggest that where Ambassador Kim was remote and chose to tread softly, Dr. Choi is expected to take be more engaged and active.

Currently the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, he's held various posts in the Ministry and also served as Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna. More interesting, though, is his work in the 1990s. From 1995 to 1997, Dr. Choi was Deputy Executive Director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), where he oversaw the $5 billion effort to construct two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, a country he's visited six times. This will stand him in good stead in his second role, Chairman of the First Committee of the General Assembly, which deals with disarmament and international security. So, presumably, will his stint as Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations in 1998 and 1999, during which he was in charge of planning and support for 17 peacekeeping operations, including those in Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone and the Congo.

Considering that I work on speeches for the First and Fourth committees (the latter oversees peacekeeping), I hold out some hope that I will actually get to work with the new ambassador, or at least talk to him now and then. In the meantime, I can look forward to next Thursday's farewell reception for Ambassador Kim, where I will eat well, and the Ambassador, as usual, will say not a word to me.

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Topic: The Mission

Among my duties here at the Mission is the composition of notes verbales, which are unsigned letters from one diplomatic mission or government to another. The actual content can usually be summed up in a sentence or two, but the note verbale is a peculiarly formal document, and I have to admit that I've developed a certain fondness for its elaborate charms.

A typical note verbal goes something like this:

The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations presents its compliments to the Permanent Mission of the [Country] to the United Nations and has the honour to inform the latter that [something or other, usually involving mutual support in elections to various UN bodies].

The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of [Country] to the United Nations the assurances of its highest consideration.

5 April 2005
New York

Note that the date and the "honour" are British. Note also that this lovey-dovey boilerplate gets sent back and forth between countries that don't like each other much — although I have yet to send one to North Korea. But that, I suppose, is much of the point of the UN: it's a place where all the different countries get their officials together to practice speaking to each other in a dignified manner. How effective this is at preventing conflict, I have no idea, but it's kind of fun to write.

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Topic: The Mission

Got a couple of new speeches up. Check them out, if that's your thing.

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Topic: The Mission

Makgeolli seller.

On Wednesday afternoon, we had a small party in the 7th-floor library to celebrate the new year, where the spread was different from the usual reception catering we get. Different and more Korean. There were oranges, an East Asian new year tradition; tteok in numerous varieties; various Korean snack foods, like spicy potato sticks and squid crunchies; and plastic milk bottles that had been filled about a third of the way with rice, then the rest of the way with sugar-water. This concoction, I was told, is the basis for a sour, milky rice wine called makgeolli, which is often home-brewed and sold in two-liter soda bottles. At this stage, it was a pleasant, sweet beverage with no alcohol.

Today for lunch we had a reception to push the South Korean candidate for the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which meant the usual array of dumplings, smoked salmon, sushi, stewed beef, fruit, pastries and tteok that I've come to recognize as our standard reception fare. The crowd today was heavily international, because it's the votes of other countries that we're trying to win. From what I understand, South Korea has a couple more such candidates ? judgeships on the International Criminal Court and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ? so there will be more receptions to come. Which, for me, means free meals.

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