Foreign Minister Park Jin on Thursday said South Korea "gave its best" in its campaign to host the 2030 World Expo, after the southeastern city of Busan lost to Saudi Arabia's Riyadh in a vote earlier this week.

Park made the remarks responding to reporters at the 5th International Conference on Action with Women and Peace in Seoul amid speculation he could be replaced in an upcoming reshuffle.

"The government gave its best," Park said when asked whether he had heard anything from President Yoon Suk Yeol about the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle.

In his congratulatory speech at the conference, Park also stressed that the upcoming term at the United Nations Security Council will serve as an "opportunity to amplify women's voices" as he noted the "grim circumstances" of women's rights across the world, including in North Korea and Gaza.

"Our upcoming term at the UN Security Council from January 1 next year will be an opportunity to amplify women's voices and integrate their perspective into the Council for next year," he said.

"We will also launch the action with women and peace fund," he added. "This is to support women's full and meaningful participation in peace and security matters."

South Korea is set to begin a two-year term as a nonpermanent UNSC member in 2024-25.

"The transformative promise of a women peace and security agenda is yet to be fully realized," he said. "As Korea aspires to become a global pivotal state, or GPS in short, we are dedicated to rewriting this narrative, and I believe Korea can become a true GPS by realizing the WPS agenda." (Yonhap)