Anchor: In the final installation of Korea24's three-part special roundtable series airing this week, three esteemed experts discussed South Korea’s role in the global community after its remarkable transition from a recipient of international aid to a donor nation.
Choi You Sun has the details.

Report: Coming out of the three-year-long Korean War, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world, relying heavily on international aid known as Official Development Assistance.

More than half a century later, South Korea has successfully transitioned from being a recipient of international aid to a donor nation, having joined the OECD's Development Assistance Committee in 2010.

In the wake of recent reconciliatory mood on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea's former diplomat Oh Joon, who now heads Save the Children Korea says Seoul should exert more efforts, not just toward Pyongyang's denuclearization, but also its development.

[Sound bite: Oh Joon - President of Save the Children Korea]
"A lot of North Korean people are suffering from their poverty, from their lack of infrastructure, from their poor agricultural products. So this is the time when things go well, especially in the political and security areas, we should pay more attention to how we can work with North Korea in terms of assisting their development efforts."

Professor Kim Eun-mee, who heads Ewha Womans University's Institute for Development and Human Security highlighted the need to ensure environmental sustainability in the North's development process.

[Sound bite: Kim Eun-mee - Director of the Institute for Development and Human Security at Ewha Womans University]
"The sustainable development goals are goals that will help us from 2016 to 2030 in terms of eradicating poverty, bringing economic development and environmentally sustainable development for all the countries in the world. I think it would really be very important to engage North Korea in the sustainable development goals dialogue, so that their development path would be environmentally sustainable, would be looking after the most vulnerable population in their country."

Dr. David Smith from The University of the West Indies' Institute for Sustainable Development, who joined the discussion over the phone said development assistance should be centered around helping recipients build their national capacity.

[Sound bite: Dr. David Smith - Coordinator of the Institute for Sustainable Development at The University of the West Indies]
"Being able to make sure Overseas Development Assistance helps to build capacity inside the country that you’re helping. To say for example, very typical for some of the DAs to these countries is that you will get a loan or a grant to do a project and if don’t have the expertise to do it, consultants will be brought in to help you do it. The knowledge that those consultants have is very rarely transferred to the country that’s receiving it. So the next time you do a similar project you have to bring in the consultants again."

On the subject of a recent dam collapse in Laos, which involved South Korean firms in its construction, Smith said before launching a project in a developing country, it's crucial to first become familiar with the local environment and its people.

[Sound bite: Dr. David Smith - Coordinator of the Institute for Sustainable Development at The University of the West Indies]
"In the case of the dam collapse, it may very well be that there were aspects of local information that may not have been taken into account in terms of things like flooding, so on and so forth. So it really does acquire proper openness in terms of data, making sure the correct impact assessments and background information are done, making sure that the capacity for local monitoring evaluation and so on is built up as well, so that there are less opportunities for failures."

The full roundtable discussion will air on KBS World Radio Korea 24 on Thursday evening Korea Time.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.