□ Former Consul General Jun Jae-won was inaugurated as the new Secretary General of the Association of North East Asia Regional Governments (NEAR) on April 1, 2015. □ Secretary General Jun Jae-won graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and obtained a doctoral degree in political science at Peking University. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1978 and worked as Second Secretary in China, First Secretary in Auckland, Deputy Consul General in Vancouver, and Consul in Shanghai. He also served as Consul General in Xi’an from August 2011 until this March. He is expected to contribute to the development of NEAR and invigorate exchange between members, greatly utilizing his wide-ranging experiences and expertise in the area of diplomatic relations. □ NEAR is an international organization which was founded by the heads of 29 regional governments from Korea, China, Japan, and Russia and led by Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, Korea in September 1996. It aims to realize the mutual prosperity and unity of Northeast Asia through exchange and cooperation in a variety of fields ranging from administration, economy, culture, to tourism between Northeast Asian local governments. □ Gyeongsangbuk-do Province hosts the permanent NEAR Secretariat according to a decision of General Assembly made in Heilongjiang Province in 2004. From then onwards, the Secretariat was situated in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province permanently as a result of the General Assembly held in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in 2012. The NEAR Secretariat is located at Pohang City in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. □ The Association consists of 73 member regional governments and 14 subcommittees under 6 countries at present. It has experienced continued growth and a rising status within international society as a result of the sustained attention and cooperation of member regional governments. □ Secretary General Jun Jae-won highlighted the invigoration and substantiality of the management of Subcommittees, International Forum, and Working Committee as well as expansion of member regional governments as areas he would pursue during his inauguration speech. □ In particular, he revealed his plans to reflect the various demands and seek out new exchanges‧cooperation projects in a bid to promote co-prosperity and co-development between member regional governments greeting the new Pacific rim era of the twenty-first century. Additionally, he added that he would commit his efforts to bringing about outstanding results for NEAR.