1. At the Third International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria held in Kuwait on March 31, the government of the Republic of Korea (head delegate: Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs Shin Dong-ik of the Foreign Ministry) pledged 10 million US dollars in humanitarian aid to join the UN and the international community’s efforts to resolve the serious humanitarian crisis in Syria entering its fifth year.

2. This Conference was co-hosted by the UN and the Kuwaiti government to encourage the international community to expand their humanitarian assistance to solve the Syrian crisis. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who presided over the Conference, launched an unprecedented large-scale appeal for 8.4 billion US dollars for 2015, considering some 12 million people in Syria in need of humanitarian aid and the rapidly increasing burden on neighboring countries, including Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, accommodating about 4 million Syrian refugees.

3. At the Conference, Deputy Minister Shin explained that in addition to this new US$ 10 million pledge, the ROK had provided 13.45 million US dollars’ worth of aid over the past 3 years in various ways, including donating caravans and ambulances and expanding libraries in refugee camps. The Deputy Minister also expressed the ROK’s willingness to continue to contribute to education for Syrian refugee children, given the importance of education in post-conflict development.

4. The Conference concluded successfully with pledges of many donor countries. The government of Kuwait, the host country, pledged to donate 500 million US dollars, and participating countries pledged a total of 3.8 billion US dollars, of which 507 million were committed by the US, 1.5 billion by the European Commission, 509 million by Japan, 255 million by Germany, and 150 million by the UK.

5. The ROK government, as an emerging donor, has actively participated in responding to humanitarian crises in order to contribute to the happiness of the global community and the co-prosperity of humankind. The ROK will continue to work to expand its humanitarian assistance to a level befitting its international stature. 


           Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

*unofficial translation