South Korea’s Aid to Africa and Compliance with International Norms

Abstract

Abstract Previous literature on Korea’s official development assistance (oda) has tended to focus on Korea’s national interest in providing oda, in a way that is biased toward accepting the assumption of a realist paradigm and ignoring the aspect of international cooperation observed in Korea’s aid behavior. To fill this gap in the literature, I examine the impact of the poverty reduction norm in determining Korea’s aid behavior. I adopt qualitative research methods and examine two aspects of the impact of the norm of poverty reduction in Korea’s oda: the incorporation of this norm into oda policy and transformations in aid allocation to African countries. I also conduct an analysis at the level of the system and the unit to identify the factors that encourage Korea to sensitively respond to the poverty reduction norm. I argue that norm internalization has led Korea to increase aid to Africa.