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STAFF2

ADVISORMS. CAROLYN BROWN

STAFF PAGE

LAYOUT EDITOR- JASMINE PARKGRAPHICS EDITOR- AMY CHOI

MANAGING EDITOR- JONATHAN YUNASSISTANT EDITOR- ELIZABETH SONG

LAYOUTJAY CHUNG

JEANNE HANEUGENE KIM

JOSHULYNE PARKMILTON YOON

GRAPHICSJULIE CHUNG

CHRIS LEELINDA PARKEUNA SUN

WINSTON YOO

REPORTERSCELINE HWANGJEESEOB JUNGRACHAEL LEEASHLEY KIM

SANGWON KIMBONA KOO

HELEN SONGCHUNGHO SUHYASMIN YOON

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF- EUNICE LEE & SEAN KIM

IN-ZONE 3

Martin Nesirkygetting to know Martin NesirkySince a majority of SEO-

MUN delegates are from South Korea, many already know Ban Ki-moon, the current Sec-retary General (SG) of the UN. News of his promotion in 2007 was a popular topic of discus-sion and a source of pride for South Korea.

On the other hand, not as many people know who the spokesperson of the UN is, even though he deserves more attention for fulfilling such vi-tal roles. Here is a brief biog-raphy on Mr. Nesirky, the cur-rent spokesman:

Mr. Nesirky, who replaced his predecessor Michelle Montas of Haiti on Nov. 30, 2009, has had 20 years of ex-perience in journalism, media

relations and international af-fairs. Before he started work-ing with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Vi-enna, where he served as spokes-man and head of press and public information since 2006, he worked at Reuters, a Brit-ish news agency in London.

At Reuters, he reported on many political issues, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, events in the Balkans and de-nuclearization. In addition, he was responsible for covering the Commonwealth of Inde-pendent States and topics re-

garding the Middle East and Africa.

Despite his deep involve-ment in politics and journal-

ism, Mr. Nesirky will still have to confront the many problems that come with being a spokes-person of such a large peace-making body. For example, he will have to accommodate the needs of 192 different govern-ments. He must constantly be careful with what he says

so that he does not upset too many political leaders.

According to Patrick Worsnip, Mr. Nesirky’s former colleague and current Reuters bureau chief at the UN, an-other challenge Mr. Nesirky will have to face is related to SG Ban Ki-moon, who has received much criticism from the media for his awkward use of English and “failure” to re-solve world crises.

Even with all these ob-stacles, it is clear that Mr. Ne-sirky’s work is invaluable to the UN and should not go un-noticed by student MUN del-egates. Knowing who the SG is is a given, but familiarizing oneself with the mouthpiece of the UN is equally important.

BY ELIZABETH SONG

syrian government decides to end

anti-government protest downcrackBY JONATHAN YUN

After almost eight months of constant crossfire between the protestors and the govern-ment, the Syrian government took a democratic approach and agreed to halt its crack-down on anti-government demonstrations.

The Arab League reported that the stopping of the sup-pression was not the only decision that the Syrian gov-ernment agreed to, as Syrian President’s Bashar al-Assad’s administration concurred to release political prisoners who were involved with the pro-tests to pull troops out of the streets and allow Arab League observers and international journalists into Syria.

Though the Syrian govern-

ment has taken steps towards democracy, Edward Park, ad-viser of USA in the Advisory Panel (AP), remains suspi-cious about the reform.

“It is good news that Syria is moving towards a less corrupt government and instead pro-moting democracy,” said Ed-ward. “However, I am curious about the reason behind all these decisions by the Syrian government. I am also skepti-cal that other theocratic coun-tires under dictatorships will implement similar policies.”

On the other hand, Jus-tin Lee, International Court of Justice judge, is optimistic about the democratic appeal from the Syrian government.

“I think these changes will

serve as a good model for oth-er nations experiences protests for democratic changes,” said Justin. “If these reforms turn out to be bad decisions, then the Syrian government will at least learn from its mistakes for a brighter future.”

Other nations have also casually accepted President al-Assad’s agreements.

“The United Kingdom wel-comes any democratic change as long as it does not infringe upon our national interest,” said Hyong Seok Kim, adviser of United Kingdom in AP.

These reforms are not the first time Syria tried to appeal to its citizens. According to Cable News Network (CNN), the Syrian government made

previous assurances to with-draw armed troops from ci-vilian areas. Although the ar-mored forces were pulled out, the infantry was still left to pa-trol the streets. Anti-govern-ment protestors condemned these pledges as efforts to buy time.

Syria is one of many Middle Eastern and North African na-tions involved in the so-called “Arab Spring” revolutions, which first began in Tuni-sia back in January. Since the Syrian uprising began in mid-March, an estimated 3,000 people have died in an attempt to bring down President al-Assad’s regime.

Knowing who the SG is a given, but familiarizing oneself with the mouthpiece of the UN is equally important.

POINT of INTEREST4

Every year, SEOMUN wel-comes delegates from many international schools, includ-ing schools from China and Vietnam. Although the prima-ry purpose of students coming from abroad is to write reso-lutions and participate in de-bates, they also enjoy the op-portunity to explore and learn about Korea.

Seoul is already a popular tourist destination in Asia, and when foreign delegates decide to come to SEOMUN, many look forward to experiencing Korean culture in addition to gaining MUN experience.

“What first came to my mind when I thought about

coming to Korea was Korean food, like ddokbokki and Ko-rean barbeque and shopping for clothes,” said Annette Wu, a delegate from British Inter-national School of Vietnam (BIS-V), who is coming to SEOMUN for the third year. “But I was just as excited to meet my fellow delegates and homestay family.”

This year’s foreign delegates have also found Korea to be a pleasant to visit, and appreci-ated the clean and friendly en-vironment.

“The hotel we are staying at was very nice and the air here is clean,” said Gun Jong Choi, a delegate from Tianjin Inter-

national School. “In China, the air is very polluted, so it was a nice change. Also, the taxi drivers were very friendly.”

As delegates continue to tour Seoul and better under-stand the city, they also recog-nize it as an appropriate loca-tion for MUN conferences.

“Seoul, Korea is a model of rapid economic and so-cial development—a city that mingles rich traditional cul-ture with progress and moder-nity,” said Annette. “All of that makes it the perfect platform for the future’s global leaders to meet, debate and learn.”

Advisers, too, along with delegates, were able to enjoy

the various attractions that Korea offered. Foreign visitors appreciated the history and culture, regardless of their age and purpose.

“Fukuoka is a pretty small city, much smaller than Seoul,” said Justin Goff, an adviser from Fukuoka International School. “My favorite food is the Korean barbeque, but re-cently I tried the hodduk, and I have never tasted anything like it. Not only that, but Nam-daemun and Dongdaemun were both famous shopping areas that we all enjoyed.”

Opening ceremony leaves participants with new expectations

Once the opening cer-emony commenced with the groovy beat of the jazz band, delegates took their seats to get started for this year’s SEOMUN conference. While delegates were catching up with each other, Jenny Jang, the Deputy Secretary General (DSG) and Heejae Choi, the Secretary General (SG) made their finishing touches to their speeches.

The crowd quieted down and the ceremony officially be-gan as the DSG welcomed the MUN adviser, Kevin Duncan, to the podium.

“There are many special guests in this year’s SEO-MUN,” said Mr. Duncan. “We have the honor of having Mr. John Delury, Ms. June J. H. Lee, Mr. Jeffrey Boyce, and Professor Cheol Park, as our guest speakers of today. Also, we invited Dr. Minh A. Luong, the keynote speaker for today.”

Following Mr. Duncan’s opening speech, Heejae Choi brought up a new issue to pon-

der upon: globaliza-tion.

“A few decades ago, SEOMUN would have been a dream,” said Hee-jae. “We live in a globalized society and the world today is no longer dis-jointed regardless of the geographical location. However, globalization has brought some nega-tive consequences because one nation’s issue becomes the whole world’s issue.”

She also addressed how im-portant it was to be a global leader and how much of a privilege it was to have Dr. Minh A. Luong, the Assistant Director of International Se-curity Studies at Yale Univer-sity and the Associate Director of the Brady-Johnson Center in Grand Strategy.

“When I was your age, I didn’t have SEOMUN, so I

think it’s extremely lucky for you to start valuable training from such a young age,” said Mr. Luong. “Instead, I met ambassadors and they gave me the intention and the po-tential of the UN. Remember, the final attribute of a leader is humility, not fame. Prepare now and do something won-derful—good luck.”

As the opening ceremony came to a close, delegates left

the auditorium encouraged to become improved global citi-zens.

“Mr. Luong gave us his per-sonal account on how we could become global leaders and the importance for new leaders to be well-rounded. He also in-spired us to pursue our studies in various subjects,” said Caro-line Kim, the delegate of Cote D’Ivoire in the Economic and Social Council.

BY BONA KOO

BY HELEN SONGDelegates make sacrifices for MUN

BY EUNA SUN

POINT of INTEREST 5

Meet Bob. Bob is currently a sophomore enrolled in an international school in South Korea. He encounters a series of problems while preparing for this year’s SEOMUN at Korea International School.

Bob was troubled. In an effort to prepare delegates for the MUN conference, his school began to hold mock debates every day during ac-tivity period. Since they were administered to run in a fash-ion almost identical to the United Nations conferences, the workload delegates had to

do was equally as great.Poor Bob here had a mortal

fear of speeches and became inarticulate whenever he stood in front of a podium. How-ever, he was able to overcome his troubles by performing his own rituals before any pub-lic speaking event: He would drink exactly four gulps of water, undo his tie and redo it. Such habitual behavior helped him calm his nerves before giving a speech.

Another aspect of MUN that consumed much of Bob’s time was writing resolutions.

He knew that it was one of the most fundamental parts of the United Nations conference. He knew he had to manage his time wisely because as a soph-omore, he had many other tasks he had to finish, such as club activities, volleyball and school homework.

His first resolution was condemned by his fellow peers for “having so many holes,” including contradictions, con-vention errors and implausible proposals. His chair criticized his work harshly, describing it as “feeble” and “poor”.

As time passed however, Bob became more accustomed to the systematic running of MUN debates. He began to understand the true reason behind mock debates—that practice makes perfect.

Bob learned that although practice may be tedious at times, it is best to understand that full commitment is the re-quirement for any activity one may attempt. After all the long hours spent in preparation for SEOMUN, Bob was finally ready for the conference.

Social Advantages of LobbyingOften times, teachers re-

mind the students, “Two brains at work are always bet-ter than one.” This frequently used saying is definitely perti-nent to MUN delegates as they work together to form resolu-tions during lobbying sessions on the first day of conference.

Delegates were to submit their resolutions—considered one of the most critical parts of the MUN experience—to the approval panel by the end of the day yesterday, after much research and discussion.

“Certainly, lobbying is the most important part of SEO-MUN,” said Marcus Lee, del-egate of Argentina in the Hu-man Rights Council (HRC). “It helps us recognize other members and include them in the resolutions that we must make and create, and eventu-ally in the end we will come up with something that we would never be able to achieve on our own.”

Some difficulties that del-egates faced were coming up with statements that repre-sented the various opinions on

the issue. The most common problem was putting the ideas together into one resolution and making sure that the ex-planations do not go too over-board.

“Making a resolution some-times makes my brain go on hold because I suddenly don’t know what to think about,” said Albert Kim, delegate of Guatemala in HRC.

Nevertheless, despite these challenges, delegates benefited from the cooperative nature of the lobbying process, which required delegates to share

their opinions and ideas about how to improve social condi-tions.

“We’re all from different places, and there are several foreign delegates here,” said Joosun Kim, delegate of Rus-sia in General Assembly Two. “Making a resolution together will definitely make the pre-sentation stronger and im-prove the look of what we sub-mit.”

Lobbying also allowed del-egates to form social relation-ships—it is not uncommon for delegates to befriend one an-

other as they work together to co-submit a resolution.

“As MUN delegates, we re-ally need a good idea of social interaction and talking with one another,” said Joosun. “Lobbying is a great advantage because it really helps me grow as a people person.”

“Taking a big step is hard for some, and especially break-ing out of a social box is one that MUN delegates must take in order to get out there,” said Albert.

In fact, creating a social network with other delegates and maintaining friendly re-lationships—even outside lobbying—is considered to be critical to the success of a MUN career.

“All these delegates have come together today after a lot of hard work and practice to make more contributions together as a MUN society and represent our sisues as a group,” said Heejae Choi, Sec-retary General, in her speech during the opening ceremony.

Meet Bob: BY SANGWON KIM

BY JEESEOB JUNG

PREPARING FOR SEOMUN XIV

BY LINDA PARK

COMMITTEE6GA 1 and 2 lobby for support for resolutionsBY YASMIN YOON AND CELINE HWANG

Tension and heat rose in General Assembly One and Two (GA1, GA2) as main-sub-mitters fought for co-submit-ters to support their resolution.

Daniel Kim, delegate of Chad in GA2, won support for the specificity of his resolu-tion, which suggested putting tariffs on Chinese imports in countries where China has a big market advantage so that it will not manipulate currency.

Ian Kim, delegate of the United Kingdom (UK) in Gen-eral Assembly Two, submitted a similar resolution; however, to gain China’s support, he eliminated the tariffs pro-posed by the delegate of Chad.

“We have a reason—a motive—for China to par-ticipate,” said Ian. “Instead

of implementing tariffs, we explain that if China contin-ues its unfair practices, it will negatively affect the econo-my overall, causing inflation and weakened economies in developed countries, trade deficits, and decreased sales.”

The delegate of Chad provid-ed a counterargument against the delegate of UK’s resolution.

“The delegate of UK’s reso-lution does not have a specific solution to China’s case,” said Daniel. “My solution helps China’s global image, and puts China’s currency back to normal. This resolution is more beneficial for China’s economy because the tariff decreases each time the cur-rency returns to normal.”

Meanwhile, GA1 delegates

also lobbied for each other’s support. Two resolutions re-garding the steps that should be taken to ensure safety against cyber warfare competed against each other for approval.

Min Woo Sun, delegate of Afghanistan in GA1, was the main-submitter for a resolu-tion on establishing an interna-tional method to ensure safety against cyber warfare. Some co-submitters were the del-egates of Switzerland, Malay-sia and the United Kingdom.

“The resolution focuses on raising awareness about the dangers of cyber warfare,” said Min Woo. “It also tries to get several countries to agree to stop cyber weapons from be-ing used. It should be support-ed because it suggests realistic

long term and short term ac-tions that should be taken.”

A resolution on the same topic was also main-submit-ted by Kelly Cho, delegate of the former Yugoslav Re-public of Macedonia. Her resolution also focused on setting standards for the defi-nition of cyber warfare and creating a cyber army unit.

“This resolution covers a wide variety of aspects on an issue that should be ad-dressed immediately,” said Kelly. Since this issue of cy-ber warfare is an issue that pertains to the 21st century, there are no standards on how to address it. The resolution is meant to serve as a founda-tion for further resolutions.”

Guest speaker inspires delegates of ECOSOCBY RACHAEL LEE

Guest speaker Cheol Park, a professor and graduate of the Seoul National Univer-sity, provided information and ideas pertaining to the issues of Economic and So-cial Council (ECOSOC). As the delegates of ECOSOC filed into the room, looking for their appropriate chairs, Professor Park prepared for his speech at the podium.

“We are currently living in uncertain times,” said Pro-fessor Park. “In the United States, people are demon-strating in Wall Street, and Wall Street is the very sym-bol of the US economy.”

Reducing trade barriers in order to promote interde-pendence is one of the issues of ECOSOC this conference. According to Professor Park, globalization has its own dis-advantages, such as the in-creased availability of cheap labor, which leads to height-ening income inequalities.

“In countries suffering from income inequality, the

poor are left out of the ben-efits of globalization,” said Professor Park. “Cheap labor is the final outcome. Cheap credit is the final outcome and causes financial crises. No country is insulated from events, although in the past it used to be beyond our reach.”

After the speech, the guest speaker was open to questions from the ECOSOC delegates.

“The United States is is-suing too many bonds and printing too much paper money, which may cause in-flation,” said Professor Park in response to a question about measures for sustainable debt from Aspen Wang, delegate of Costa Rica. “China, Sin-gapore and Russia prevent the value of the dollar from going down [resulting from economic interdependence].”

The delegates of ECOSOC benefitted from the profes-sor’s knowledge on corpo-rate finance and economics.

“I now understand that the relationships between coun-

tries are more c o n n e c t e d than before,” said Joseph Seongjae Kim, delegate of the Russian Fed-eration. “The economic in-terdependence was increased and [Profes-sor Park] ex-plained about the trade problems that were related to our issues.”

D elegates then sepa-rated into three groups for lobbying based on the three issues of ECOSOC: promoting sus-tainable debt, strengthening interdependence and the im-proved treatment of refugees.

“The lobbying process was a very thorough process in which we were able to un-

derstand clearly the stance of other countries, said Amy Kim, delegate of USA. “I think the keynote speaker was very beneficial because we were able to incorporate his ideas into our resolution.”

BY JULIE CHUNG

COMMITTEE 7

Human Rights Council takes another try at labor rightsBY JEESEOB JUNG

Many groups such as the Human Rights Coun-cil (HRC) support the fight for morals. Like last year and the year before, the council’s issues promote public jus-tice and support lawfulness for the mistreated peoples.

The HRC topics this year are the enforcement of labor rights within transnational compa-nies and freedom for unfairly treated women. From the two, the former has received more support from delegates.

According to Jisoo Kwak, delegate of Sudan, the mistreatment of labor in nations across the globe have increased in society.

“We see this [exploitation of human labor forces] hap-pen in so many presidential companies around the world,” she said. “Life is so hard for them and while it is hard

to recognize these happen-ings for us, we really should.”

Although belonging to a group that fights for the jus-tice of the people is dutiful, some delegates believed that supporting such a concep-tual issue had limitations.

“We can’t really suggest building houses or adopting children to exactly affect our

situation,” said Marcus Lee, delegate of Argentina. “We need to fight with our words, and the difficult part of do-ing that is finding the right ones to support our positions.”

To solidify their opinions on these issues through reso-lutions, the delegates spent all of yesterday lobbying, shar-ing their ideas and coming

up with solutions to prob-lems regarding human rights.

“I definitely feel a lot more comfortable now that I have more ideas to comprehend and add on to,” said Albert Kim, delegate of Guatemala. “Lobbying has helped me un-derstand what’s really going on and connect more with my committee members.”

HRC delegates enjoyed their first day of the confer-ence, and looked forward to future MUN experiences.

“I look around me and I see so many things now; MUN has definitely helped me gain a broader view of the world,” said Sitt Paing Oo, delegate of Israel. “I never really looked at the small, unnoticeable things in life until I joined MUN.”

Delegates merge their ideas together during lobbying The Special Conference

(SPC) productively spent the first day of the three-day con-ference lobbying and merg-ing ideas to form resolutions. With one full day dedicated for lobbying, delegates realized the importance of cooperation and discussion.

The three issues the SPC will be debating this year are: deterring cybercrime and en-suring better accountability on the Internet, designating un-restricted access to the World Wide Web at an affordable rate as a human right, and ensur-ing better transparency in the government’s use of technol-ogy.

Delegates focused on com-ing together to form one reso-lution to present to the rest of

the committee by a main sub-mitter; at the same time, dele-gates formed friendships with one another.

“By lobbying, you can form relationships with other del-egates and discuss ideas to see who is for your resolution as well,” said Chunghwa Suh, del-egate of Chad. “Therefore, you can get more support which means an increased chance of passing your resolution.”

While some groups strug-gled to determine who their main-submitter was, others quickly formed a skeleton for their resolutions and began brainstorming points to sup-port their stance.

“The delegate of Venezuela is main-submitting,” said Yoon Ji Lee, delegate of Japan. “We

are expecting to pass this reso-lution regarding the issue of deterring cybercrime and en-suring better accountability by using education to alert people and by enhancing legislation. We are still on the process of blending our opinions, but we are on the right track.”

Another group covering the issue of designating un-restricted access to the World Wide Web decided on Joe Kim, delegate of Turkey, as the main-submitter.

“Our group focuses on rais-ing awareness by showing the positive and negative sides of the issue,” said Joe. “This issue is positive because hu-man rights can be granted to citizens and people don’t feel restricted because they can

access any information. How-ever, it’s negative because chil-dren can access inappropriate material and there can be an invasion of privacy. We are trying to pose incentives on why we need our resolution to pass.”

Aside from the delegates who were main-submitting, delegates who were co-submit-ting attempted to help those who needed support for their resolution.

“I’m excited for tomorrow,” said Christina Suh, the Deputy Assistant Presdient of SPC. “Even though there are a lot of beginners in this committee, they work hard and original members should try to sup-port each other tomorrow to have an effective debate.”

BY BONA KOO

BY EUNA SUN

8 FOCUS

GLOBALeconomic

crisis The world economy is currently unraveling at the hands of a global economic crisis. The bursting of mortgage bubbles, the buildup of debt, and the failure of multiple banks have the global economy reeling. In Europe, Greece’s econo-my began to collapse in 2010, and its economic troubles threaten to pull down the rest of Europe with it. Greece’s problems do not end with its money. Their failures in dealing with its economic poli-cies led to riots, and as a result, an unstable continent. The European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are all lending money to Greece, but this constant borrow-ing is not healthy for the global economy. “If I had to loan my money to Greece, I would feel unsafe,” said Kevin Han, advocate of the For-mer Yugoslav Republic of Mace-donia in the International Court of Justice. “My loans to Greece may not be repaid, and Greece

would ultimately fail, leading to a complete devastation of Europe’s economy as well as the world’s global economy.” Though these short-term prob-lems are detrimental to the global economy, the world and Europe

in particular could be plagued by more woes for years to come. Experts concluded that Europe’s problems are not only limited to its recent economic failures. For years, the European economy has been stagnant. Italy’s economy has not grown in the past ten years. Even Germany, considered to be Europe’s economic engine, had a low average growth rate of 1.5%.

“Having a stable economy may be healthy, but having an economy that refuses to grow is a problem,” said Justin Lee, International Court of Justice judge. “The current economic troubles were inevitable, as Europe could not do anything to enlarge its markets.” These long-term problems are already causing a major disturbance in the global economy. The world economy is resilient to bounce back from these woes. Yet it will take time, effort and coopera-tion from politicians and UN delegates. “[I am] hoping for a resolution that addresses both an immedi-ate measure that will ameliorate the debt crisis of Greece and other nations in similar situations, and also address long term solutions that will balance the interest rate of member nations of the EU, im-proving economic equality within nations,” said Cindy Lim, the del-egate of Greece in the Economic and Social Council.

European crisis threatens global economyBY CHUNGHO SUH

224239

262299

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GREEK DILEMMA:Government Debtin billions of Euros

2006 2010200920082007INFOGRAPHIC BY AMY CHOI

FOCUS 9From the West to the East

BY RACHAEL LEE The Panic of 1893 may have devastated the citizens of America, but the recessions of the 21st century encompass a much larger sphere of influence. A result of complex financial instruments and mortgage problems, the global fi-nancial economic crisis that began in 2008 has led to the economic collapse of several countries. “Because the Eurozone has one simple currency, it has drawn all European countries to downfall with Greece,” said Kathy Yun, As-sistant President of ECOSOC “It was like a domino effect, [which is the main issue that affects all delegates].” The recession has had signifi-cant effects on many parts of the world. For example, New York-ers are protesting on Wall Street, blaming the recession on Ameri-ca’s recent economic downturn. In addition, China, the second largest exporting country, reported that its purchasing managers’ index is continuing to decrease. Due to the interconnected nature of the global economy, one country’s collapse often leads to another and calls for cooperation through ef-

fective international policies. “International policies that are only effective for developed countries are common,” said Jisoo Suzy Park, delegate of Angola in ECOSOC. “The delegate of Angola is looking for policies that will help developing countries as well as developed countries.” This economic slump is perti-nent to MUN delegates, especially those of the Economic and Social Council, as the forum will debate on the issue of promoting further development of global partner-ships to make debt sustainable in the long term. Japan had already been suf-fering from foreign policy issues before the economic recession. “After the global economic crisis, the earthquakes and the nuclear meltdown, Japan’s citizens have developed a more conscious attitude [towards its economy]”, said Jinwoo Lee, delegate of Japan in ECOSOC. “The Japanese per-spective on savings makes export difficult, putting the economy at a standstill. The Japanese govern-ment is currently publicly asking [its] citizens to spend more and

cutting down the government of-ficials’ incomes in order to become gradually involved in the global economy.” Admist the current global eco-nomic crisis, MUN delegates are in search of a cooperative solution promoting sustainable debt and economic interdependence. South Korea has been suffering from slowing growth, but the delegate of South Korea adopted a optimis-tic stance towards the issue. “The Republic of Korea is a role model for East Asia’s developing economies,” said Annette Wu, delegate of the Republic of Korea in ECOSOC. “The delegate recog-nizes the need for self-sufficiency as much as a certain level of gov-ernment intervention in markets in order to protect developing countries.” On November 1st, 2011, Greece adopted new austerity measures in order to cut expenses and govern-ment spending. Additional treaties are allowing the stock markets of Asian countries to regain their previous vigor.

COMMITTEE10Keynote speaker further educates delegates onBY JONATHAN YUN

The advisors in Advisory Panel (AP) were treated with a keynote speaker who came in to answer any questions that they had regarding the issue of “green globalization.”

Guest speaker Jeffrey Boyce, a former Environmen-tal Protection Agency (EPA) environmental scientist, gave a brief presentation on environ-mentalism. He then answered all the questions the advisors asked, taking them further into their research.

“I think he’s not only help-ing us enforce what we’ve learned from research but also getting all the advisors into the mindset of wanting to get really involved in these issues,” said John Han, advi-sor of Southern Africa Custom Union. “Certainly for me, he has really helped me take in-terest in these environmental issues.”

Other advisors voiced their

appreciation for Mr. Boyce’s serviceability to the panel.

“I think [Mr. Boyce] is giv-ing us as advisors a lot of ‘start-ing points’ for brainstorm-ing solution,” said Elizabeth Tse, advisor of European Free Trade Association. “It’s good that we’re interact-ing with him on the issues of debate be-cause person-ally, I’m get-ting a much clearer outline of the subtopics underlying the issues now.”

Advisors were not the only ones who praised Mr. Boyce as the chair was also inspired by his contribution.

“Mr. Boyce is giving the advisors much clearer insight from a professional point of

view,” said Nicholas Yun, Pres-ident of AP. “Advisors didn’t seem to be entirely convinced by their research, and it’s really eye-opening for the chairs as well to hear [about environ-

mentalism] from a former en-vironmental scientist from the EPA.”

According to Jenna Kwon, Assistant President of AP, the advisors not only became more knowledgeable on their topic, but also became more active with their participation.

“ Not only is he informing the advisors in AP for future debates, but he is also truly inspiring the advisors,” said Jenna. “His speech has drawn advisors to voluntary ask ques-tions and voice their concerns. His speech, as the topic is rel-evant and urgent, is making our advisors to be more aware of the environmental issues.”

Mr. Boyce himself stated that he enjoyed speaking in front of the Advisory Panel and wished them the very best of luck when debating on their resolutions.

“[The interaction] was fan-tastic,” said Mr. Boyce. “The advisors were well-prepared and they asked knowledgeable questions. In all the decisions that they make and avenues they follow, I hope they re-member the future generation and focus on sustainable de-sign.”

Security Council Aims to Reform BY SANGWON KIM

Delegates of the Security Council focused on the issue of reforming the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the lobbying session on the first day of SEOMUN.

Many delegates were con-cerned about the effectiveness of IAEA’s reactions to crises.

“After the Japanese nuclear accident in Yokohama, the IAEA were slow to react to the situation, and that concerns me,” said Jason Huh, delegate of USA. “Their lack of coordi-nation led to a spread of radia-tion that could have been pre-vented. They should have come in more quickly and have tak-en action, but they hesitated.”

Other delegates believed that gradually reducing nuclear use in general would be the best way to reform the IAEA, be-cause it would reduce the risks of possible future accidents..

“We believe that we need to focus on reducing nuclear proliferation worldwide, and shut down nuclear plants that produce weaponry,” said Hee-jo Keum, the delegate of Ger-many. “Nuclear weapons are too risky and uncontrollable.”

The delegates in gen-eral agreed to diminish the global supply of nuclear warheads for public safety.

“Our plan is to work with the NPT [Nuclear Non-Pro-liferation Treaty] and Com-prehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in order to prevent other countries from creating nuclear warheads,” said Aa-dit Gupta, delegate of Bosnia and Herzegovina. “There is al-ready a convention that works with countries to help them to regulate nuclear power. Many countries are supporting this, however some countries

haven’t been ratified, and our plan is to get these ambiguous countries to actively take part.”

There also were divid-ed opinions concerning on whether or not to increase the use of technology on harness-ing nuclear power as energy.

“I think that nuclear energy in general, both for military and commercial uses, need to be reduced greatly,” said Hee-

jo. “Nuclear energy has proven to be a very d a n g e r -ous source of energy.”

On the other hand, Jae Hyun Park, del-egate of C o l o m -bia, went

against this opinion, stating support for the expansion in the science of nuclear power.

“We should request for an increase in funding from the IAEA members,” said Jae Hyun. “The fund-ing would mainly be used to urge countries to continue to array nuclear power safely.

“I think he’s not only helping us enforce what we’ve learned from research but also getting all the advisers into the mindset of want-ing to get really involved in these issues,” - John Han, adviser of Southern Africa Custom Union.

Nuclear Energy

BY LINDA PARK

Environmentalism

COMMITTEE 11

BY ELIZABETH SONGEver since its birth as a

nation, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FY-ROM) has been embroiled in a name dispute with Greece. This tension has worried Greece about security issues between the two countries, and thus, it rejected FYROM’s application to North Atlantic Treaty Or-ganization (NATO). FYROM retaliated by declaring Greece’s action as a violation of Article 11 of the Interim Accord, and the case moved onto the Inter-national Court of Justice (ICJ).

During the court proce-dure, both sides provided documents as evidence for their cases. The advocates for

FYROM also called up the delegates of FYROM, Tur-key and the United States to serve as witnesses for the court case. The advocates from both Greece and FYROM and the judges asked ques-tions to the witnesses, who revealed their ideas and moti-vations through their answers.

“The witnesses themselves have had quite staunch opin-ions on this case,” said Soyoon Kim, advocate of Greece. “Most of the time, we be-lieve our cross examination questions have been helpful.”

Throughout the debate, Greece maintained that the security issues are too large

to overcome even such a healthy fiscal relationship. Despite its name dispute with Greece, FYROM is maintain-ing healthy economic rela-tions with its neighbor. Greece found potential in FYROM as a young nation, and invested $900 million in its economy.

“Our healthy economic re-lationship with Greece shows that we will not cause any fur-ther security problems by join-ing NATO,” said Joanne Lee, advocate of FYROM in the ICJ. “Our witnesses explained how FYROM’s economic attribu-tions would definitely further the achievements of NATO.”

As the advocates of FYROM

questioned their witnesses, the advocates of Greece countered their inquiries by objecting to their relevancy. For the most part, the chairs of the ICJ agreed with the objections, undermining the arguments of the FYROM advocates.

“It definitely hurt FYROM that their evidence was shot down by objections,” said David Lim, ICJ judge. “How-ever, the testimonies by the witnesses were usually use-ful for FYROM’s case. Sev-eral judges and I all saw how FYROM’s economic stabil-ity could help NATO. Now we have to see how the advocates of Greece present their case.

Six Party Talks Starts Off PeacefullyBY ASHLEY KIM

This year, SEOMUN’s Six Party Talks (SPT) started to shift its focus to solving the tensions between each of the six nations instead of those of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), though they are focusing on the relations between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and DPRK in particular.

Led by officers David Kim, Christina Hahn and Jen-nifer Pak, the forum will be discussing the issues of safe internet usage, the halt of military engagement, and a solution to the human rights crisis in the DPRK.

“I think that this year’s delegates all have extraor-dinary talents,” said David. “They’re making relationships with each other quickly, some of them have great speak-ing skills, and overall they all seem very knowledge-able about all three issues.”

John Delury, a professor of international studies at the graduate school at Underwood

International Col-lege of Yonsei Uni-versity, opened the debates with a speech. He stated that though the three issues be-ing debated this year are not typi-cally discussed in the forum, that he thinks they are critical in order to soothe tensions between all six nations. After the speech, delegates commenced in productive debate for the remainder of the first day.

“We don’t really have a typical lobbying time since we’re all collaborating to-gether and submitting clauses to create a single resolution,” said Jennifer, Deputy Assistant President. “Right now, we just started our first exclusive ses-sion where one delegate from each country follow each of the

three leaders of the forum and have a caucus—or an infor-mal debate. Everything is go-ing pretty smoothly, although some delegates seem new to SPT. All of them are really working together well and it’s a very collaborative process.”

Most of the SPT debate

is focused on the DPRK, which is denying the viola-tions of human rights and the military actions it has been accused of by ROK. Never-theless, the two nations are seeking for a peaceful solu-tion to this predicament.

“Most of [the issues] are about keeping the peace be-tween the two nations, but our stance is for anything that won’t provoke another war,” said Sangwook Choi, the delegate of ROK. “Our stance is very peaceful and to try and facilitate more discussion and further Six Party Talks in the future.”

During the next few days the delegates will debate the three issues further, and work collaboratively to produce suc-cessfully combined resolutions.

“The atmosphere has been pretty friendly overall because we’re just getting to know each other,” said June Park, del-egate of Russia. “But I think it’s about to get more heated during the actual debates.

BY JULIE CHUNG

Greece defendsVETO Against Fyrom in ICJ

POINT OF INTEREST 12

Delegates encouraged to rely less on laptops during debate

This year, the no-laptop policy will be more strictly enforced throughout the SEO-MUN conference. This change has been met with mixed feel-ings from delegates and offi-cers alike.

“I think it will be difficult [to work without laptops] since some delegates need laptops to finish last minute research,” said Judy Oh, ad-viser of Worldwatch Institute in the Advisory Panel. “Using research for laptops can help delegates gain more knowl-

edge on their issues and be more prepared for their dis-cussions.”

Heejae Choi, Secretary General, and Jenny Jang, Dep-uty Secretary General, imple-mented this policy once again to encourage delegates to stay focused on the debate instead of being distracted.

“This policy is always im-plemented during SEOMUN and we decided to continue the tradition by implement-ing it once again,” said Heejae. “Delegates usually find laptops distracting and we didn’t want the quality of the debate to de-plete because of this reason.”

Albert Park, Co-President of the Administrative Staff, agreed that preventing del-egates from using their laptops could make it more difficult for them to participate in dis-cussions but that at the same time, it could help delegates concentrate more on the dis-cussions that are taking place around them.

“It can be effective that laptops are not allowed any-more since delegates will be unable to digress from discus-sions,” said Albert. “On the other hand, [laptops] can also be productive since delegates can find additional informa-

tion about the issues related to their countries [by using their laptops].”

According to Michelle Oh, Co-President of the Technolo-gy/Design team, the no-laptop policy will force delegates to be more creative with provid-ing solutions to global issues in their resolutions.

“Since delegates cannot use their laptops, they will have to think of their own ideas in-stead of looking them up on the Internet,” said Michelle. “[Also], they will be less dis-tracted and able to focus more on the discussion itself than [being off-task].”

BY CELINE HWANG

Hundreds of students have gathered to participate in this year’s SEOMUN conference, resulting in a great variety of participants from different grades, different schools and different countries. But of these myriad delegates, chairs and

administrative staff members, who stands out? What makes someone the perfect candidate for each position?

BY ASHLEY KIM

The Ideal

Delegate/Admin Staff/Chair

“The ideal chair is someone who doesn’t just rule the conference by themselves, but who works to help the delegates. Personally, I think a chair should get to know the delegates on a more personal level as well. And although they have to command the attention of the delegates and over-see the conference effectively, I don’t think it has to rigidly follow the reg-ulations at all times. I think the best chairs are able to effectively manage the conference with wit and humor.” -David Kim, President of Six Party Talks

“The ideal admin staff should be quick, efficient, and unafraid of long hours of continued physical labor. The administrative staff member should be someone who is able to pass notes between the delegates with respect while keeping with the integ-rity of the conference at the front of their mind. I think that the ideal ad-ministrative staff member should be someone who has a high level of in-terest in MUN and in the issues be-ing debated during the discussions.” -Jenny Jang, Deputy Secretary General

“I think that the ideal delegate is elo-quent and is able to make very per-suasive speeches. I think that the most convincing delegates tend to be extremely charismatic. But at the same time , their speeches shouldn’t be all rhetoric and empty metaphors that are meaningless. In order for a delegate to be a truly great commu-nicator they have to have substance in their speeches and they should have concrete facts and logical argu-ments behind all of their persuasion.” -Heejae Choi, Secretary General

PHOTO BY LINDA HEEYOUNG PARKPHOTO BY LINDA HEEYOUNG PARKPHOTO BY LINDA HEEYOUNG PARK

IN-ZONE 13

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