My fellow Koreans, citizens of Busan and maritime and fisheries professionals,

It is a great pleasure to join you in celebrating the 31st National Oceans Day.

National Oceans Day commemorates Admiral Jang Bogo’s establishment of the Cheonghaejin maritime command center. This year, we are holding the commemorative ceremony here in Busan to mark the opening of a new era for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

Korea is a shipbuilding and shipping powerhouse with world-leading technological prowess. It is also a trading powerhouse that has set a new all-time export record and is now advancing toward US$1 trillion in exports. Further, Korea has emerged as a global defense industry powerhouse whose products are sought after by countries around the world. 

It was upon the sea that the Republic of Korea first set sail, launching its bold journey toward the wider world.

Our seafarers and maritime and fisheries professionals were at the forefront of opening of these vast sea routes.

The foreign currency you earned, risking your lives aboard foreign merchant ships and fishing vessels sailing to distant waters, sustained your families and laid the foundation to revive our national economy.

Just as we honor the dedication of Korean miners and nurses dispatched to Germany during the era of industrialization, we must also proudly remember the quiet toil of our seafarers and maritime and fisheries professionals – a remarkable achievement in the history of Korea’s industrialization.

In 1996, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries was launched under the Kim Young-sam administration. This was a powerful declaration of our determination to enhance the competitiveness of our shipping, ports, shipbuilding, marine industry and fisheries sector, and to establish the Republic of Korea as a maritime powerhouse.

Now, thirty years later, the sea is no longer just a space for logistics and industries. It has become the front line where our nation’s survival and future will be determined.

In this era of uncertainty – a time when the global maritime trade order and supply chains are being reshaped –securing a leading position and maritime safety, the lifeblood of the global economy, has become more important than ever.

Our government, founded on popular sovereignty, will hasten the realization of President Kim Young-sam’s bold vision of the Republic of Korea becoming a maritime powerhouse.

As a bridge between Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific, the Republic of Korea will safeguard the freedom of navigation and an open trade order for regional countries.

Furthermore, we will lead a new maritime order in which all can share the sea and prosper together through it.

The solid foundation for realizing this nation vision lies in the strength and resilience that our shipping and port industries have built over many years.

Recognizing that the shipping industry is not simply a logistics sector, but a key industry that firmly underpins the nation’s economy and security, the government will foster our shipping and port industries as national strategic industries.

First, we will accelerate the recovery of global shipping supply chains, which have yet to regain full momentum, and build new shipping supply chains that we can fully control. 

We will also create an ecosystem in which shipping and shipbuilding can grow together and mutually prosper, while broadly fostering marine insurance, ship financing and maritime services to strengthen our shipping industry’s fundamentals.

We will also make every effort to cultivate skilled seafarers.

Joining us here today are students from Korea Maritime & Ocean University who have safely completed their deep-sea training.

These young people are the future of our shipping industry – these pioneers of the Northern Sea Route era will cross the world’s oldest sea lanes to open a new chapter for tomorrow. 

We are also joined by the industry leaders who blazed new trails through their bold entrepreneurial spirit and made us a maritime powerhouse by proactively investing in vessels. 

The government will fuse the pioneering spirit of our seasoned professionals with the passion of our young mariners, offering unstinting support so that our shipping industry can take the lead on the world’s oceans.

It is right here – in Busan and across Korea’s southeastern region – where we will fulfill the vision of becoming a true maritime power: a nation that brings countries together through the sea, blazes pathways to peace and builds a foundation for shared prosperity.

As the Republic of Korea’s proud Southern Maritime Capital Region, this area will rise higher, extend its reach further and grow stronger still.

My fellow citizens, 

Developing the Southern Maritime Capital Region is not merely about developing a specific region. It is both a survival strategy for the Republic of Korea in this era of intense global competition, and a balanced growth strategy that directly translates the vision of becoming a maritime power into jobs and regional vitality.

Our southeastern region possesses the geopolitical potential and capabilities to emerge as a world-leading maritime hub.

It is a grand gateway connecting the Pacific and Eurasia, a comprehensive industrial hub for world-class businesses and the steadfast heart of Korea’s advanced manufacturing industry. When the southeastern region’s unparalleled strengths are united by the sea, the Southern Maritime Capital Region will reveal its value, blossoming fully and astonishing the world.

Building on this extraordinary potential, the government will integrate Busan and the broader southeastern region to create a new economic zone that is filled with possibility and opportunity.

We will expand logistics infrastructure to link our ports, airports, railways and roads, while also creating a marine tourism belt that encompasses the entire southern coast. In doing so, we will develop the region into a maritime economic zone that stands tall on the global stage.

Furthermore, right here in Busan, the new era of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries will begin in earnest.

Once relevant deliberations in the National Assembly are concluded, we will move swiftly to complete a maritime cluster that brings together shipping companies and related public institutions, along with the Maritime Court – for which the necessary legislation has already been passed – and the Southeast Investment Corporation.

We are told that following the relocation of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to Busan, universities across the region – including Korea Maritime & Ocean University – have seen record high numbers of applicants, with a corresponding increase in the proportion of students from the Seoul metropolitan area.

It may not yet represent a major visible transformation, but it is the seed of new and significant change.

Without fail, the government will meet the expectations of our young people who chose the sea in their search for Korea’s future and for new opportunities.

We will develop Busan into the Republic of Korea’s maritime capital in both name and substance, and foster the Southern Maritime Capital Region, thereby fully realizing balanced national development – a vital national mission.

I am confident that all of you – marine and fisheries industry professionals across the country and citizens of the southeastern region – will be constant companions on the Republic of Korea’s journey toward becoming a true maritime power. 

Thank you.