Discussion Lacking
Discussion over Internet governance issues surrounding the world's cyberspace is expected to continue amid a failure to find a definite answer. As such, South Korea is going to form the Korea Internet Governance Alliance (KIGA) and plans to deliver its position at various international conferences down the road.
At the Internet Governance Open Forum which was held at Start-Up Alliance in Seoul on Nov. 13, Lee Young-eum, professor of Korea National Open University, said, “Governments, businesses, and civil organizations were expected to discuss Internet governance at Busan ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, but they didn't.”
Early this year, the U.S. announced that it will hand over all the authority to the private organization Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has dealt with Internet governance issues, and that the U.S. government will no longer intervene in the world Internet order. The announcement brought about the question of how and who will lead Internet governance, drawing the attention from the world since the first half of this year.
Under such circumstances, it was predicted that specific discussions would be made at Busan ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, but it didn't go well due to disagreement in each country's interests. Byun Sun-jeong, senior researcher of the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), said, “Russia, the Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia argued that the ITU should have an expanded authority or range of topics for discussion of Internet governance, which was opposed by the U.S., Japan and European countries.”
The Korean Government, academic world and civil organizations plan to establish an organization to mediate Korea's position on Internet governance and respond to problems from now on. After the forum, the KIGA was created the same day. The alliance is going to hold conferences by sector in five areas; public sector (Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, KISA, etc.), academia, businesses (Naver, Daum Kakao, etc.), civil organization, and technology.