Secretary-General Lim Byung-jin attended the NEAR Subcommittee on Educational and Cultural Exchange, which is coordinated by Shiname Prefecture, and on this occasion, visited Hyogo Prefectural Office on August 22. During his visit, he met with Director Shiomi of the International Affairs Bureau to discuss future cooperation. 

Mr. Lim provided the recent activities of NEAR, and requested Hyogo Prefecture to attend the NEAR High-Level Working Committee, to be hosted by Liaoning Province in Shenyang from September 24 to 26, as well as the NEAR Subcommittee on Innovation+, to be coordinated by Hunan Province from October 22 to 24. Additionally, Mr. Lim expressed his gratitude to Hyogo Prefecture for having been coordinating the NEAR Subcommittee on Disaster Prevention for over 20 years, asking about its future operational plans.

In response, Mr. Shiomi expressed his warm welcome to Mr. Lim, promising Hyogo’s active participation in NEAR events from the following year. In regards to the Subcommittee on Disaster Prevention, it would be difficult to operate the event in the form of inviting NEAR member officials to the venue as in the past, due to several circumstances, Mr. Shiomi said. Instead, Hyogo will be receiving inquiries on the matter from the member regions to provide advices and solutions. Additionally, he proposed that the NEAR Secretariat provides the NEAR member officials with an opportunity to have a one-week-long training program in Korea for the NEAR member officials.   

Under the guidance of the Hyogo Prefectural Office, Mr. Lim visited the Human and Disaster Prevention Future Center to observe the severity of the earthquake damage and the efforts being made by Hyogo to prevent such disasters.

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred on January 17, 1995, in the southern part of Hyogo Prefecture with a magnitude of 7.3. It resulted in over 6,300 deaths and more than 40,000 injuries. Until the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 (which resulted in approximately 19,700 deaths), it was the largest earthquake in terms of damage since World WarⅡ.