Can South Korea Bridge the Global North and South? - Prof. Choe Wongi - Eyes on Middle Powers Eps. 2

And South Korea, as you said, has been successful in economic development.

If you trace back years, years ago, before Korea becoming a giving hand, used to receive a lot of donors and now they're giving and contribute more to the region and around.

What is the secret sauce for the foreign policy in the foreign policy context that South Korea can become what it is today, a successful

economy? Yeah, I mean, the economic development was one of the top players in the past, right? So For example, you can look at the foreign policy directions of the previous Korean governments during 1980s and this, right? I mean, the major, we used to have two top priorities.

One is because of the division of the Korean Peninsula into North and South, and we have been under the military threat from the North, right? So the first priority is a defense policy.

kind of try to maximize the preparedness against any kind of threat from the North.

So that's why the military alliance with America is important, top priority.

The other one is economic development, right?

So in that regard,

in the previous, in the past, in terms of foreign policy ambitions and aspirations, I mean, the South Korean government's foreign policy goal was not that... that big.

I mean, if you look at what we have been doing regionally and globally, I would say that Korea was not really proactive in terms of dealing with foreign policy issues.

More of kind of defensive and proactive.

Not proactive, but more passive, right? Because, I mean, the priority is dealing with the North Korean threat and also take the origin issue of economic development, right? So in that regard, I would say that Korea in the past was under very strong constraint from the security environment and also the origin imperative to...

broaden the economic basis, right? But I think starting 2010, early 2010, right? So when Korea's overall national GDP got increased, When we became the G20 members, the sense of national confidence got kind of strengthened, right? So in contrast to the passivity stance of the past, right? So in terms of foreign policy aspirations, we got a little more confident, tried to reach out and engage with the regional partners.

So even if Korean companies were already operating in Southeast Asia, It was only in early 2010. that Korean government paid, started to pay a serious attention to reach out and engage with the regional partners.

So at the regional level, right? So the expanding the diplomatic horizon, areas of the engagement, expanding areas of engagement, that was one of the top priorities.

Because, I mean, we, as I pointed out, Korea is surrounded by bigger neighbors, right? So our strategic gaze has been really confined in the Korean Peninsula.

So the enduring challenge for us is to go beyond the Korean Peninsula, expand our diplomatic horizon, expand our kind of areas of maneuver beyond the Korean Peninsula.

So in that regard, I think we became much more confident.

And also, I mean, we became to manage to have more wherewithals, the foreign policy tools, right? So Korean companies are now kind of very competitive on the international market.

And also, you know, that the Hallyu, right, that Korean K-dramas, K-pop songs, right, the cultural kind of experience, right? So these kind of newly acquired companies kind of resources and assets provide a basis for our kind of enhanced sense of national confidence.

Yeah.