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It has been a humankind's long-standing dream and ideal to establish law and order which make a safe crime-free society. However, from the very beginning, human society had witnessed various crimes, and as our society has become more complex, crime has been rapidly increasing. As such, human society has been making efforts to find countermeasures to eliminate all the social evils threatening human integrity and to establish a safe society which is free from crime.

The seriousness of crime-related problems in each nation has intensified alongside with their social development. Today, crime is regarded as one of the major factors that seriously undermine growth, deteriorate the quality of individual life, and threaten safety, welfare and inter-class integrity. For this reason, crime has become as significant an issue as economic development in our society, and it is agreed that national development and advancement are impossible without solving crime-related problems.

Facing a new millennium, nations are becoming closer and closer to each other, thanks to progresses in science and technology. As a result, crime tends to be wide-ranging. well-organized and international. Accordingly, in tackling crime, international cooperation comes to take precedence over each nation's respective efforts.

Based on the foregoing, in 1997 the Korea's Ministry of Justice ("MOJ") commenced the International Workshops on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in order to assist developing countries, via sharing each nation's experience, information and opinions, in advancing and democratizing administration of crime prevention policies and criminal justice system. Also in order to enhance international cooperation in eliminating crimes that prohibit social development, common countermeasures are being prepared on both regional and international levels.

Since 1998, the International Legal Exchange Center(ILEC), an affiliated organization to MOJ, has held the International Workshops, sponsored by the Korea International Cooperation Agency(KOICA). Our final goal is to expand the Program to a world-wide training course by inviting nations from all over the world for unification of finding countermeasures against internationalization of crime at the international and regional level and seek ways to build international cooperation.

In the Workshops, we cover various topics as to crime prevention and criminal justices, ranging from effective measures to cope with crime to methods to implement criminals' rehabilitation and social development. We hope that the International Workshops on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice will enhance international cooperation in solving crime-related problems and encourage cooperative relations among the participating nations. Furthermore, we hope that the International Workshops will play an important role as a social development assistance program for all the participating nations.