South Korea's New Southern Policy

Abstract

Pursued vigorously as Moon Jae-in’s presidential agenda, the New Southern Policy (NSP) was Seoul’s most sustained diplomatic initiative in its recent diplomatic history, as it marked South Korea’s attempt to deepen its ties with Southeast Asia and India. The NSP had been enthusiastically received by the ASEAN countries and was the most successful of Moon’s foreign policy initiatives to date. However, the NSP’s core policies were confined heavily to bilateral economic and functional cooperation because Seoul did not clearly articulate its strategic outlook, and deliberately avoided strategic engagements in regional political and security affairs. Consequently, a number of Seoul’s commitments and pledges vis-à-vis regional peace and stability live only on paper. This chapter argues Seoul’s strategic role and relevance in regional affairs are at variance with its growing economic prowess, and that the NSP underperformed because Seoul constrained its own strategic potential and constricted its own strategic wherewithal for fear of China’s negative reactions. Despite South Korea’s ambition as a rising economic heavyweight in Asia, the NSP’s economic and bilateral emphases underline the strategic dilemma it confronts in the emerging Indo-Pacific geopolitics. The NSP was no more than an economic and functional cooperation program with developmental assistance as its primary means of engagement. As long as the ROK turns a blind eye to and distances itself from issues of regional strategic concern such as China’s incursions in the South China Sea, it is unlikely that Seoul would be recognized as a reliable strategic partner in the region.