Retirement ceremony for Secretary General Kim Jae-hyo and Director General Lee Jong-hwan was held at the international training room of the Secretariat of the Association of Northeast Asia Regional Governments on December 30, 2014. The retirement ceremony was joined by all staff of the Secretariat to express gratitude for their hard work for development of the Association and celebrated their retirement with poetry readings by staffs dispatched from foreign countries and saxophone performance given by Sim Sung-hun, head of Gibuk-myeon, Pohang City. Secretary General Kim contributed to raising the status of the Association by placing the Secretariat at the Gyeongsangbuk-do Province for a long term and by inviting three new members-Sejong Special Self-governing City, South Korea, Jilin Province, China, and Khakassia, Russia, and by singning partnership agreements with international organizations such as AER(Assembly of European Regions), R20(Regions of Climate Action) after he was appointed to the NEAR Secretariat in May, 2011.