Jione Jung

Determinants of International Labor Migration to Korea

Since the 1990s Korea has emerged as one of the major migration destinations in Asia. This paper represents one of the first attempts to examine the determinants of bilateral labor migration to Korea across source countries and over time. We analyze the effects of economic, demographic, and policy factors. We also examine the role played by trade between Korea and origin countries. The results suggest that economic fundamentals, including income level in Korea, as well as demographic factors both in origin countries and Korea, play an important role, while different patterns are observed for skilled and unskilled migrant workers. We also found that trade is an important predictor of the size and composition of foreign migrant population in Korea. We speculate that trade influences migration to Korea through the information effect and foreign labor policy channel.

Branding K-REDD+ and its implications for South Korea's middle power diplomacy

ABSTRACT The need for new and stronger middle power diplomacy is growing as global challenges are increasingly governed by various horizontal inter- and trans-national networks. Climate change is one of the most complex and urgent global challenges that require collective action, and it is an issue for which more middle power leadership is greatly needed. The Republic of Korea (ROK) has been successful in becoming a primary actor in green growth governance, and its success has been attributed to its strategic middlepowermanship, integrating both material and ideational contents. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) in tropical developing countries has been lauded as an immediate and effective solution to mitigate climate change. ROKs unique history of forest transition before rapid economic growth highlights the fact that improving forest management is possible even with imperfect governance, rapid population growth, and low economic development. The lessons learned from ROKs forest transition can be developed as a distinct contribution to the international effort to address forest-related impacts on climate change, and offer an important opportunity for ROK to play a constructive role and achieve enhanced stature within the international community.

Financing for Sustainable Development in the Post-2015 Era

With only a few months left until the target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the international community is actively in the process of arriving at a global development agenda for the post-2015 period. One of the most significant features of the current discussion on the post-2015 development agenda is its particular focus on global partnership and means of implementation in order to achieve the new goals. The global partnership in the post-2015 era means mutual cooperation among actors in development cooperation. Financing for sustainable development as a means of implementation is more important than ever to achieving the global development goals. In this regard, this article aims to overview key issues in financing for sustainable development and draw some policy implications. Considering that the challenges the international community is facing become broader in scope and more complicated in context, additional resources and innovative financial instruments are absolutely necessary in the pursuit of renewed development agenda.

Green Climate Fund, Pursuing Country Ownership

Four years ago in Cancun, the parties to the UNFCCC gathered around for two major decisions. To support developing countries in responding to climate change, the parties agreed to scale up climate finance to 100 billion dollars per year by 2020, and to establish a dedicated fund for climate actions. This Fund, now known as the Green Climate Fund, is anticipated to play a crucial role in delivering increased resources for climate mitigation and adaptation. Since the GCF pursues country ownership as its core principle, effective and transparent delivery mechanism as well as capacity for developing countries is considered as extremely important. Therefore, the initial work of the GCF is likely to focus on developing recipient countries’ capacity. This paper reviews the features of the Green Climate Fund in the context of country ownership and effective delivery. In consideration of these features, the paper emphasizes the importance of capacity and capacity building as a priority area of the GCF.

Discussion on Climate Finance: Issues and Perspectives

As the means of implementation, the GCF and scaled-up climate finance compose major elements of a new climate agreement that will be implemented in 2020. The new agreement will be applicable to all parties, implying that developing countries as well as developed countries will be responsible for reducing GHG emissions. Achieving the goal of mobilizing 100 billion dollars will depend on the efforts put forth by developing countries in terms of meaningful mitigation actions and transparent implementation of the mitigation targets. This paper describes a major achievement on the negotiation related to climate finance since the Convention established and addresses the issues and perspectives for the Paris Agreement.

Aid for Trade: 현황과 주요 이슈 (Recent Trends and Major Issues in Aid for Trade)

Korean Abstract: 개도국의 성장동력으로서 무역의 중요성에 대한 국제적인 논의가 진전되면서 무역을 위한 원조(AfT: Aid for Trade)의 역할이 강조되어왔다. 2005년 WTO 홍콩각료회의에서 AfT 이니셔티브가 발족한 이래 국제사회는 개도국의 무역 활성화를 위한 인프라 제공 및 생산역량 강화 지원을 확대해 나가고 있다. 이 연구는 국제사회의 AfT 현황과 관련 논의를 파악하여 우리나라의 AfT 관련 정책 수립에 시사점을 제공하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 2012년 AfT 규모는 2002년에 비해 약 3배 증가한 38.7억 달러를 기록했는데, 이는 전 세계 ODA의 26%에 해당한다. AfT 규모가 지속적으로 증가하는 것은 긍정적인 현상이나, 글로벌경제 상황과 급변하는 무역환경을 고려할 때, AfT가 해결해야 하는 과제는 점차 확대되고 있다. 한편 AfT 이니셔티브가 출범한 지 10년이 되어가는 지금, AfT 성과 및 파급효과에 대한 국제사회의 관심이 고조되면서 AfT 모니터링 및 평가체계 구축 논의가 OECD 개발원조위원회(DAC: Development Assistance Committee)를 중심으로 가속화되고 있다. 우리나라는 무역을 통해 경제성장을 이룩한 국가로서 개도국의 무역 증진을 활발하게 지원해왔다. 2012년 기준 우리나라의 AfT 규모는 7.8억 달러로 DAC 회원국 중 8위를 차지하였다. 이는 우리나라의 총 ODA 규모가 DAC 회원국 중 16위를 차지하는 것과 대조적이다. (후략) English Abstract: As discussions on the importance of trade as a driver of growth and development of developing countries moved forward around the globe, the role of Aid for Trade (AfT) has been given renewed emphasis. Since the AfT Initiative was launched at the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong, December 2005, the international community has expanded its support and assistance for developing countries, to facilitate trade by providing proper infrastructure and build productive capacity. This study aims to provide policy implications for establishing policies or strategies regarding AfT based on analysis of recent trends and major issues in AfT. In 2012, the international community provided USD 3.87 billion in AfT, which represented an increase of approximately threefold compared to 2002 and this accounted for 26 percent of total ODA. While it is positive that the volume of AfT steadily increased, newly emerged priorities in AfT for donors and partner countries have been expanded, considering the rapidly changing trade environment. Furthermore, since the AfT initiative was launched 10 years ago, there have been increased concerns and attention on the part of the global community on the results and impact of AfT and thus OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) has led the discussion on establishment of monitoring and evaluation framework. Korea, which has achieved economic growth through active participation in international trade, has supported developing countries consistently to promote their trade. Case in point, Korea provided USD 780 million in support of AfT. Korea was 16th among DAC member countries in total ODA volume, but was 8th in volume of AfT. (The rest omitted)

The Least Developed Countries: Key Challenges and the Way Forward for Korea's Development Cooperation

The least developed countries (LDCs) are the poorest and the most disadvantaged members of the international community that face a broad range of socioeconomic, geographical, political, and environmental challenges. The United Nations defines LDCs based on three criteria: low gross national income, weak human development indices, and high level of economic vulnerability. Currently, 48 countries — 33 in Africa, 14 in Asia and the Pacific, and 1 in Latin America — are designated as LDCs by the United Nations. With only three countries having graduated from LDC status, the number of LDC countries has leaped from 24 in 1971 when the category was first officially established by the UN General Assembly to 49 in 2012. Amid the growing interdependency in the global economic system, international efforts to reverse the trend of socioeconomic marginalization of LDCs officially began at the first UN Conference on Least Developed Countries held in Paris in 1981. In the realm of development, the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 has led to major donors targeting LDCs as their key aid recipient groups. The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least De-veloped Countries (LDC-IV) pledged to reduce the number of LDCs by half in nine years. In order to achieve the agenda, it requires a sustainable long-term broad-based economic growth at the rate of 7% a year. Nevertheless, despite global efforts to support LDCs, there has been growing concern over the deepening vulnerability of LDCs as they were stricken by the impact of global economic recession, food crisis, and climate change in the last several years. The IMF predicts that only 10 countries will be able to graduate from LDC status by 2020. Entangled in a series of conflicts with LDCs’ geographical obstacles, socioeconomic factors, supply shock, and accumulated debt, the LDCs’ vicious cycle of poverty led further impoverishment. Although the continuing marked increases in the volume of the Korean ODA, due to relatively greater portion of concessional loan, Korea faces with the task of improving the lending conditions.