Further promote international cooperation on law and judicial reform with the Ministry of Legislation of the Government of the Republic of Korea

The delegation included the Heads and representatives of the leaders of the following units: Institute of Strategy and Legal Science, Department of Information Technology, National Registration Agency for Secured Transactions and Department of International Cooperation. The delegation visited and worked with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Ministry of Justice of Korea, and the Embassy of Vietnam in Korea.
Working with Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)
At the working session with Mr. LEE Yun Young, Vice President of KOICA in charge of Project Strategy - Regional Project 1 (Asia-Pacific), Mr. LEE Yun Young, Vice President of KOICA affirmed that the Vietnam-Korea relationship is growing, especially after the two countries upgraded their relationship to Strategic Partnership in 2009. Notably, in December 2022, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the two sides issued a Joint Statement on upgrading to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Korea is Vietnam's leading important partner in trade, investment, cultural exchange, and people-to-people exchange. Vietnam is KOICA's most important partner with many projects and the amount of KOICA aid capital for Vietnam is the largest among the countries where KOICA operates.
Agreeing with KOICA Vice President LEE Yun Young, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc highly appreciated KOICA's support projects for Vietnam, including activities to support human resource and technical training for Vietnamese law and justice agencies. Regarding the direction of cooperation in the coming time, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc said that with the increasingly developing relationship between Vietnam and Korea, investment, business, people-to-people and cultural exchange activities between the two countries will increase and lead to arising legal issues and even legal disputes related to investment, business, marriage, divorce, inheritance, etc. In that context, obtaining information on relevant legal regulations of each country is an urgent need of the business community and people of Vietnam and Korea to promote and create trust and peace of mind in activities.
To achieve this goal, legal cooperation between Vietnam and Korea needs to be promoted to match the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries. In which, KOICA's support is essential to promote this process, the results of legal and judicial cooperation will bring sustainable development to each country.
In addition, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc also requested KOICA to support the implementation of cooperation activities between the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice and the Korean Government's Ministry of Legislation and the Korean Institute of Legislative Studies, which were discussed and agreed to be implemented during this working trip of the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice Delegation.
Sharing the comments and proposals of Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc, KOICA Vice President LEE Yun Young said that in the coming time, the two sides will proactively propose and implement appropriate cooperation activities to contribute to the sustainable and long-term development of Vietnam-Korea relations. Regarding the Project "Consulting on improving the effectiveness of the legal information system in Vietnam" funded by KOICA, KOICA Vice President LEE Yun Young said that the Korean side is completing the final internal procedures to be able to implement the Project as soon as possible. At the same time, he requested the Ministry of Justice to promptly complete internal procedures in accordance with Vietnamese law. In the process of completing internal procedures in accordance with each country's regulations, the Parties proactively inform and closely coordinate with each other to ensure that the Project is soon approved and implemented in practice.
Meeting with the Vice Minister of Justice of Korea
On the morning of October 30, 2024, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Legislative Affairs of the Republic of Korea (MOLEG), Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc had a meeting with Mr. Kim Chang-beom, Deputy Minister of MOLEG. At the meeting, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc emphasized the strong development of the friendly cooperation between Vietnam and Korea in all fields after 32 years of establishing diplomatic relations since December 22, 1992, especially after the two countries upgraded their relationship to Strategic Partnership in 2009 and especially, in December 2022, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the two sides issued a Joint Statement on upgrading to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. At the same time, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc said that the high level of political trust between the two countries' senior leaders, investment activities, civil and trade exchanges, and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries are increasingly close thanks to the important contribution of legal and judicial cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice and the Korean Government's Legislative Ministry as well as other legal and judicial agencies of the two countries.
Sharing the views of Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc, Mr. Kim Chang-beom, Deputy Minister of MOLEG affirmed that the current results of the bilateral relationship are due to the contribution of legal and judicial cooperation between agencies of the two countries, including the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam and MOLEG on the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between the two Ministries signed on June 28, 2012. The two Ministries have carried out many cooperation activities, and the exchange of delegations at the Ministry's leadership level has been regularly implemented.
Regarding the future cooperation orientation between the two Ministries, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc said that with the increase in civil and commercial relations, the number of citizens of the two countries residing in each other's territory will increase, leading to legal issues arising, especially those related to business investment activities, legal issues on personal rights, property, etc. On that basis, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc suggested that MOLEG continue to closely coordinate with the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice to implement cooperation activities within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the two Ministries signed on June 28, 2012 and other cooperation frameworks.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc also requested MOLEG to continue reviewing and finalizing the proposed contents of the establishment of a multilateral advisory body on law-making in Asia (CALI) to ensure that CALI's activities are consistent with the principles of the United Nations Charter, international law and the goal of establishing CALI as a place to share experiences and good practices in building and perfecting the laws of Asian countries. Regarding the Consulting Project on Improving the Effectiveness of the Legal Information System in Vietnam, which was conceived by MOLEG and funded by KOICA, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc requested MOLEG to soon work with KOICA to unify the contents of the Project so that the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam and KOICA can sign and implement the project in the near future.
In response to the proposals of Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc, Deputy Minister of MOLEG expressed his high agreement and will direct relevant agencies of MOLEG to coordinate with the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam to continue discussing and clarifying ideas on CALI and soon complete the Consulting Project to improve the effectiveness of the legal information system in Vietnam so that both sides can implement it in early 2025.
On the morning of November 1, 2024, the Ministry of Justice delegation met and worked with Mr. CHUNG Hong-sik (Justin), Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Korea. At the meeting, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc and Deputy Minister of Justice CHUNG Hong-sik (Justin) shared about the Vietnam-Korea relationship which is at its highest development stage ever, and shared about legal issues in cooperation between the two sides.
The Korean Deputy Minister of Justice highly appreciated Vietnam's opening of the legal services market, allowing Korean lawyers and law firms to practice and be present in Vietnam to support Korean businesses and citizens in investment, business, living and working activities, thereby making important contributions to positive results in the relationship between the two countries.
Regarding the future cooperation orientation, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc and Deputy Minister of Justice CHUNG Hong-sik (Justin) both assessed that the two Ministries of Justice have many similarities in functions and tasks (lawyer management, prevention and settlement of international investment disputes, international judicial issues, etc.). The two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the two Ministries on March 31, 2015. The Deputy Minister of Justice of Korea personally conducted research on a number of legal fields of Vietnam (such as recognition and enforcement of international arbitration awards, etc.). However, in the past, there have not been many cooperation activities between the two sides while the potential for cooperation between the two Ministries is very large. Therefore, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc and Deputy Minister of Justice CHUNG Hong-sik (Justin) agreed that in the coming time, the two Ministries will review the signed Memorandum of Understanding to update and propose specific cooperation activities. The two sides will soon notify each other of direct contact points to promote cooperation activities...
Visit and work with the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea
On the morning of October 31, 2024, a working delegation of the Ministry of Justice visited and worked with the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea.
Receiving and informing the delegation about the organization and operation of the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea, especially issues related to the functions and tasks of the Ministry of Justice such as nationality, household registration, and authentication, Ambassador Vu Ho said that with the large and diverse Vietnamese community in Korea, there are many tasks related to nationality, household registration, and authentication of Vietnamese citizens residing in Korea. This partly creates pressure for the Embassy in resolving citizens' requests to promptly ensure the legitimate rights and interests of citizens in the host country.
Ambassador Vu Ho also recommended and proposed some contents on applying information technology, shortening the time to handle administrative procedures, storing documents, records, etc. to support the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea in particular, and Vietnamese representative agencies abroad in general, to better perform their tasks, especially the requests of Vietnamese citizens abroad to issue and confirm legal documents.
Sharing the difficulties and obstacles that the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea has encountered in performing its duties and responsibilities, especially in handling requests for nationality, household registration, and certification of Vietnamese citizens, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc discussed and informed about a number of solutions that the Ministry of Justice is implementing to facilitate people in carrying out requests for nationality and household registration when abroad, as well as support competent agencies in handling these tasks to better perform their functions and duties. At the same time, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc also acknowledged a number of proposals and recommendations from the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea and will assign the functional units of the Ministry of Justice to coordinate with the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve them.
Research and share experiences on legal issues related to the business community and citizens of the two countries.
According to the working program, on the afternoon of October 30, 2024, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc and the delegation had a working session and visited the Korean Institute for Legislative Studies. During the working session with the Director of the Korean Institute for Legislative Studies, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc was introduced to the history of establishment and development of the Korean Institute for Legislative Studies (KRLI), the organizational structure, functions, tasks and research areas of the KRLI.
Sharing that the cooperation between the two countries is at its best, Deputy Minister Nguyen Khanh Ngoc and Mr. Yeongsoo Han, Director of KRLI, both said that legal cooperation between the two sides, especially cooperation in legal science research, is not commensurate with the relationship and development potential of the two countries in the context of many legal issues arising when investment, business and civil exchange activities between the two countries are increasingly developing. Regarding the future cooperation orientation, the two sides agreed that the potential for cooperation is very large and that they can cooperate and research together to share experiences on legal issues of each country, in which the focus is on studying legal issues that the business community and citizens of the two countries are facing in the context that Korea and Vietnam are each other's leading important partners in investment, tourism, cultural exchange, and people-to-people exchange. Specifically, the two sides should focus on issues related to international justice such as civil, commercial, marriage, family, nationality, and household registration through jointly organizing seminars to share research results.
According to the working program, the delegation will continue to have working sessions with the Ministry of Justice of Korea, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), attend the 12th Asian Legal Experts Conference, and visit and work with the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea.