The Director of RCARO was invited to the Opening Ceremony of the Local Government Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction hosted by Incheon Metropolitan City, Korea, held on 11 August 2009, after which an opportunity was provided to participate in a special interview with the UN Assistant Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Ms. Margareta Wahlstrom, together with other participants from UN affiliated offices in Korea. Also present was Mr. Jerry Velasquez, Senior Regional Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).

In line with the subject of the interview, i.e., disaster risk reduction, the Director briefed on the activities of RCA and its Regional Office located in Korea. In particular, he emphasized the high priority of RCA assigned to partnership with UN organizations. As an example, he briefed on the RCA-UNDP Project on Post-Tsunami Environmental Assessment which is being successfully implemented and to be completed by the end this year. He also drew attention to the RCA initiative for developing new partnership projects with beneficial utilization of nuclear techniques, calling for supportive actions from related UN organizations in the region. The UN officials expressed interest in the feasibility of applying nuclear techniques to risk reduction of natural disasters like tsunami and commented on the possible cooperation with relevant UN bodies in the region.