ASEAN – THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA RELATIONS AND THE ASEAN SOCIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY: A DIGITAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The article specifies the potential contribution of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to the establishment of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) amidst ASEAN deepening vulnerability as an implication of ever-increasing digital transformation. Starting from a general outline of relations between ASEAN and the ROK, the paper proceeds to pointing out salient features of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community and its digitalization-related agenda. Then the authors turn to exploring the potential of ASEAN-ROK cooperation for overcoming the existing digital ASCC-related obstacles. The authors argue that ASEAN can obtain many components of South Korean experience, to the collective advantage of the ROK, ASEAN member states and the association as an international actor. While there are plenty of studies that focus on ASEAN-ROK relations, as well as on the ASCC achievements and failures, the digital aspects of this project, seen through the prism of dialogue between the association and South Korea, have not been explored in detail. If so, both ASEAN-ROK cooperation and ASCC are subjects to a fundamental reassessment. Though less noticed, there is also a task to generalize on the ASCC experience as an individual track of cooperation between the association and its external partners. The study aims to eliminate the afore-mentioned research gaps, which accounts for its academic novelty, originality and practical relevance.