SOUTH KOREAS FOREIGN POLICY DYNAMICS TOWARDS SOUTH ASIA

Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava Vice chairman CSSP,Kanpur,India Vpy1000@yahoo.co.in Paper presented for World Congress for Korean Politics and Society 2011
Korean Political Science Association,Incheon Songdo, South Korea 23 August, 2011 - 25 August, 2011

Introduction In the recent times particularly after the collapse of USSR and emergence of USA as unilateral power in the global politics many new changes have taken place in Asia.These developments have affected every nation in the continent.Three major developments can be observed in Asian politics firstly emergence of China, India,Japan and South Korea with derived secondary effects upon the international politics, secondly emergence of ASEAN and emphasis on economic foreign policies by many of the nations in Asia, thirdly the proliferation of terrorism with its main fountain head located in Afghanistan, consequently emergence of South Asia as main capital of global terrorism. These developments have forced every nation at global level with particular reference to Asian nations to formulate its foreign policy towards a country or region in more realistic manner.South Korea like many other countries in Asia has also followed same path. The main objective of this paper is to identify the main threads of South Koreas foreign policy towards south Asia.The paper argues that South Korea has emerged in Asian politics but it needs to take note of South Asia in more effective manner. Objectives Of South Korean Foreign Policy

South Korea is a developed economy.It has produced its economic impact in many areas.It is a leading force in several economic and technological sectors, recently it has graduated into a regional power with major impact on its neighbourhood and Asia as a whole. South Korea has achieved this status despite many limitations.It is located in second most conflict prone area in Asia,i.e. after South Asia.In South Asia the conflict is generated between India and Pakistan in which many historical factors affect their bilateral relations but nuclear arms race is one of the most typical element to define their relationship patterns. Similar truth can be advanced for the South Korea and North Korea relationship.South Korea and North Korea have developed similar pattern of relationship as exists between India and Pakistan. The most negative factor in this relationship is that North Korea with external support has developed life threatening devices in all probabilities which is a major cause of concern to South Korea and surrounding areas. In this background and contemporary- historical realities,South Korea has evolved certain objectives of its foreign policy.These objectives can be understood as: Firstly to emphasize upon the economic goals, foreign policy needs to be formulated in such a fashion so that the economic development is accelerated. This can be accepted as one of the most important objective of foreign policy of South Korea. Secondly to maintain peace and calm in the region by emphasizing upon negotiation ,diplomatic maturity for resolution of conflict and accepting the peaceful coexistence as a major platform of peace and progress. Thirdly to tackle the newly emerging global order in which new centre of powers are emerging with better policy options which includes search for new friends,allies and new models of interaction with other nations. Fourthly to tackle the problems emerging from the North Korean side in matured manner,to bring the North Korea to a zero threat level , to move towards reunification process as elaborated in Sunshine policy.

Lastly but recently South Korea has added another foreign policy objective, to emerge as potential politically active player at global level but to start with Asia ,an objective which is in tune to its economic status which it has gained at global level. South Korean foreign policy objective are realistic in nature.These have their logical reasoning and rationality. These objectives have been pursued by South Korea in order to maintain power equilibrium in the region simultaneously to ensure the economic development of the nation. These foreign policy objectives have brought many benefits and have served its larger goals in successful manner but certain areas exists where better policy options can be explored.South Koreas relations with South Asian states fall in this classification.This is an important region in the present world order due to many reasons but most of the nations have not taken a collective stock of this region.South Korea has emerged in recent times an important player in the Asian politics,its present status compels it to devise a new pragmatic Foreign Policy Towards South Asia. South Asia:What Does It Hold For Whole World South Asia is one of the most economically underdeveloped region. It is true that this region has not performed well in the economic and social development indicators,as for illustration per capita income of all eight members of South Asia region(as decided on the basis of membership of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) is quite low in comparison to other countries and region in the world. In recent times many countries in the region have attempted to redefine their path of progress but in the words of Nurkse they are still trapped in the vicious cycle of povertybesides high unemployment rate, high population growth rate, low level of education, poor level of economic infrastructure have put South Asia as one of the most lagging region in the world. Inspite of all these deficiencies South Asia counts much in the global politics in present time though for many wrong reasons .

Primarily it is a region where historically placed conflicts between two core members of the region exist,these have been failed to be resolved.This is the area where high chances of nuclear flare exists in persistent manner. Secondly this region has emerged as a hub of terrorism due to main concentration of terrorists organization in Afghanistan-Pakistan ,because of this reason USA and other countries have come together to contain the proliferation of terrorism at global level by concentrating to this region but not much successes have taken place in this venture. Thirdly this region is developing economically ,about 200 million people in this region have purchasing power capacity equivalent to that of any developed country therefore it emerges a natural attraction for many of the multinational companies. This is the reason even many South Korean companies including automobile giants and educational companies as in the form of coaching centres have established their bases in India where emergence of middle class in recent time with an expected number of 150 million people in this segment have produced attraction to the foreign investors, Lastly but one of the most important factor form the South Korean perspective is the existence of Pakistans invalid relations with North Korea.There are strong evidences that development of nuclear weapon programme in North Korea has received important support from the Pakistan.This support system has strengthened North Korea to emerge as a serious nuclear threat to the peace in the region.Its major impact is borne by the South Korea because it is main targeted country by North Korea.It is a historical,cultural,geographical and emotional compulsion for South Korea to live with North Korea.Diplomatic destinies have decided their present state of interaction which unfortunately for South Korea brings negative impacts. South Asia And East Asia South Asian countries have developed different form of relationships with the east asian countries.India and China has followed policy of coexistence but permanent elements of distrust exist.India has taken step by step model to resolve the issues with China but Chinese actions in Sri Lanka and POK(Pak Occupied Kashmir) produce another set of irritants.

Pakistan on the other hand has developed very warm relations with China and uses it against India by creating a balance of power system in the region. China too comes closer to Pakistan as it gives wider leverage to it against India. Pakistan has developed relations with North Korea and its nuclear development programme has been benefited by Pakistans open or clandestine support. India has developed better economic and political relations with Japan and South Korea.These two countries are now two important component of its policy to this region.A fact which have potential to mature in more meaningful manner in due course of time. Sri Lanka has courted China in recent times.With Chinese help it succeded in containing the menace of LTTE.China too has reached closer to Sri Lanka in view of its larger strategic interests. South Korea in all this relationship pattern figures in economic relationships with the nations of the South Asia. Its activity as an impactful political player is sufficiently limited.The emergence of closer relations in China-North Korea-Pakistan definitely puts pressure on it to look South Asia in more meaningful way. South Korea Foreign Policy Dynamism Towards South Asia The major functional role of South Korean foreign policy has remained to enhance the economic development by developing strong relationships in economic spheres with the countries. It has also functioned to create a peace full environment and zone in its peninsula and surrounding areas .It has also carried on a stronger relationship with USA since its existence.At the functional plane of foreign policy,it is one of the few countries who have followed independent foreign policy simultaneously maintaining stronger ties with USA. As South Korean foreign policy as its primary objective at functional plane aimed to develop stronger economic relations with other countries and region , it initiated economic cooperation with South Asia. South Asia can be understood as being comprised of eight countries which are member states of SAARC. South Korea has developed effective economic and other relations with many of

the regional organizations and world multilateral bodies but in case of South Asia due to non functional role of SAARC as effective regional economic organization at the global level , it could not establish any substantial relations with SAARC. SAARC was established in 1985 and its its initial constituent members were seven these included all the seven major countries of South Asia , viz. India Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh , Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, recently Afganistan has also become its part. Many scholars although may be interested to include Myanmar in this region but South Asia for political and economical region can be understood and exhibited by SAARC. SAARC is an economic regional organizations .Its main objective is to enhance economic cooperation in the region. It has accepted for this objective two major resolutions South Asian Preferential Treat Agreement (SAPTA) And South Asian Free Treat Agreement (SAFTA). SAPTA was implemented in 1995 and SAFTA was estabhished in 2006. These were focused on internal economic cooperataion although their substantial economic gains are yet to be achived. It is likely that after its proper functioning it can work out a road map for interation with major countries and organization as a singal regional entity therefore South Korea interaction with SAARC is minimal , inability of SAARC to emerge as an effective and cohesive regional organization has pushed South Korea to deal with the individual countries of South Asia in economic field more intensly. South Koreas interaction with South Asia was mainly decided by the economic relationship but hard fact in the international politics is that economic relationships find better expression and acchivement when these are supported by a strong foundation of political relationship .In fact both are interwined with eacth other but strong rope is naturally of the political relationship. In pursuing its objective South Korea attempted to develop and maintain diplomatic

relations with every individual country of South Asia. It maintained diplomatic relation with India in year 1973, with Maldives in 1967, with Bangladesh in 1973, with Sri Lanka in 1977, with Pakistan in 1983, with Bhutan in 1987.

This successive diplomatic establishment in indicative years bring out the fact that it maintained diplomatic relation with Pakistan quiet late although had initiated diplomatic relation with Bangladeh in 1973, almost a decade earlier to Pakistan though Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan and had got independence from Pakistan in year 1971. Similar hard facts can be easily obtained if we employ Political Intensity Indicator(PII) to know the political relationship intensity of the South Korea with South Asian states.

This indicator has two values, maximum value and minimum value.the maximum value stands at 10 and minimum value at 0, whenever any top most political authority visits the another country and reciprocal visits are also taken note of, the top most authority visit carries maximum 10 score and no value is assigned to no visit. The visit by other influential power holders carry different values as visit by foreign minister will have value of 6 , of defence minister 5 and by finance minister at 4 ,This indicator can provide a basic idea about the level of political interactive intensity.

When this indicator for top power holders

is applied with respect to South Korean

interaction with the individual nation states of South Asia , a basic understanding suggests that maximum political interaction has taken place between South Korea and India whereas minimum interaction is obtained for the Bhutan and Nepal. From the Indian side two times President in year 2006 and 2011 and one time Prime minister in 1993 visited South Korea whereas from the South Korean side three times Presidents in year 1996,2004 and 2010 and one time Prime minister in 1999 visited India ,this interaction at highest level has not been experienced by any other South Asian country. The most interesting point is that South Korea started to take interest in India quite lately ,the last decade of the century is representative decade in their bilatreal relationship.The interest of South Korea to India seems to have started due to the economic reforms measures undertaken by the India in year in 1991,India stared large scale economic reforms which are now commonly termed as LPG model in which L stands for liberalization, P for privatization and G for the globalization. These reforms attracted attention of many advanced countries , South Korea is among these nations which by now had adopted aggressive economic relations with many of the countries.These reforms also changed direction of the Indian foeign policy as well.India initiated Look East policy in which South Korea was one of the most important componemt to which India wanted to reach for increaded economic interaction.South Korean foreign policy for South Asia was still not very coherent and was aimed particularly in the enhancement of the economic relations with countries of the region.On economic matters the interests of both of the countries converged and they started to fashion their relations mainly in economic terms. Pakistan is second most important country in the South Asia.It is core member of the South Asian politics,The bilatreal relations between India and Pakistan have remained full of conflict since their inception which still remains non cordial due to multiple factors.Hence any country which wants to frame a South Asian foreign policy, treads on the diplomatic path quite cautiously. The same is not the case with South Korea.It has created a solid

foundation of relationship with India but the same is not the case with Pakistan as the political intensity indicator suggests. Pakistan took an earlier step in enhancing the relations with the South Korea but South Korea has not given any prominence to this country in political sphere.Pakistans military ruler General Zia ul Haq took a visit of the South Korea as early as in the year 1985.thereafter four top political authorities (Prime ministers and President) in years 1988,1996,2003 and 2008 visIted to South Korea but no visit so far of the President or Prime minister from the South Korean side has taken place for the Pakistan.The political affinity between both of the countries is therefore quite low.South Korea did not provide Pakistan any important place in its scheme of things , though Pakistan was an important contributing factor which has brought so much problem and troubles to the South Korea, It is accepted that clandestine Pakistan support to North Korea by Pakistan has been the most disturbing factor to the South Korea and stability and peace in the Korean peninsula region. South Korean foreign policy towards South Asia has not given much political orientation to this region.It is quite likely that more matured foreign policy towards South Asia would have reduced the unrestrained anti behavior of some of the countries against the South Korea. The role of Pakistan in supplying the support to North Korea could have been constrained if a broad based foreign policy would have been operationalised for South Asia. In contrast to Pakistan , South Korea shows better results on political interaction indicator with Bangladesh , it initiated diplomatic relationship quite early when in 1973 diplomatic relations were established with Bangladesh.This was a surprise element of foreign policy of South Korea due to many factors, primarily Bangladesh was initially a part of Pakistan commonly known as East Pakistan, in 1971 it got independence from Pakistan. Immediately after two years after its independence South Korea supported Bangladesh in global political field. This may not have produced a good taste to Pakistan . The indicator suggests that there existed better bilateral relations between both countries, viz. Bangladesh and South Korea, Prime minister Begum Zia went to South Korea in 1995 , this visit was reciprocated by Prime ministerial visit in 1994 and 2004 when PM Mr.Lee Young-

Duk and PM Mr. Kim Suk-Soo visited respectively. The relations with Bangladesh have been placed on functional basis , the aim of South Korean foreign policy has been to enlarge it in future.Bangladesh is a potential country to South Korea. Sri Lanka is island country in South Asia, Three factors in recent times have provided this nation a special status in South Asia. Firstly it is being wooed by China .With Chinese support Sri Lanka has succeeded in decimating the LTTE, militant organization which had threatened the unity of Sri Lanka , secondly Sri Lanka stands at the best HDI index level in South Asia , thirdly it was the first South Asian country which decided to go for liberalization measures in 1970s, even quite earlier than India which initiated it in 1991.As a consequence Sri Lanka has got a distinctive place in foreign policies of several countries. The Chinese involvement in this country particularly in the sphere of infrastructure development has been seen as not so positive affair by the neighboring countries including India which has got unique historical, cultural and ethnic relationships with this island nation. The trade liberalization of Sri Lanka was a major development in the age when free market economy in South Asian countries were considered a sort of evil, social-welfare model was supposed to be the main policy framework in these countries ,in fact only Sri Lanka did show flexibility in its import policy in comparison to other South Asian country in the early days of 1980s, a time when South Korea was also fashioning its economic-trade policies. South Korea established diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka quite early in 1977 but at the political interaction level efforts were not so intensive, though Sri Lanka had emerged though lately as a major country in the region due to its liberalized policies and more emphasis on the social infrastructure. Its restrictive emergence was caused due to its deep involvement in resolving the ethnic problems where LTTE like militant organizations had been a constant threat to its unity and integrity ,albeit faults lied on its political powers too that they discriminated a large section of the society as Tamils on many counts. The closer relations between both countries stated to take shape in the last decade of the century.First in 1996 the Sri Lankan President Madam Chandrika Kumartunge visited to

South Korea in year 1996, almost two decades after the establishment of diplomatic relations followed by Sri Lankan President visit in 2005 and PM visit in 2006. The South Korea maintained its inhibition of maintaining deeper relations with Sri Lanka and in year 2005 South Korean Prime minister Mr.Lee Hae Cham visited the island nation. There are four other major nations in South Asia which form the important territorial part of the South Asia.These include Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan along with Afghanistan. The diplomatic relations with these smaller states were established quite early. South Korea established its relations with Maldives as early as in year 1967, with Nepal in 1974, with Bhutan in year 1987. The political interactive level with these countries is quite poor.They have no importance in the South Koreas foreign policy.There is only visit of Maldivian President Abdool Gayoum in 1984 to South Korea , but no other substantial interaction since the establishment of their diplomatic relations is obtained .It can be safely argued that South Korea did not have any intense interactive political affinity with these countries and its value stands at zero. It needs to be emphasized that these countries hold important strategic locations in South Asia which has been viewed and exploited by China quite successfully. Nepal and Bhutan are Himalayan kingdoms hence stayed as buffer states between India and China since the time of British rule in this region. Their role in future global politics can not be underweighted, moreover they are initiating economic development in their country hence hold a vast and impactful economic potential which can be utilized by South Korea. In the economic sphere South Korea attempted to give a little more value to South Asia. South Koreas economic relations with South Asian countries provide a different understanding. As per the latest data available South Korea has carried on its economic relations with the South Asian countries in two forms, primarily there is emphasis on the increased bilateral trade between South Korea and a particular South Asian nation and to increase its investment level in the particular country, secondly to provide the assistance and grants in aid to Least

Developed Country(LDC) of the region , in which it has selected Afghanistan for the assistance and Bhutan for the grants. The economic diplomacy of South Korea towards South Asia has not occurred at institutional level due to ineffectiveness of the SAARC. The economic organization of the region has failed to produce ant viable platform for institutional relationship, hence South Korea has initiated the Free Trade Agreement with the selected country ,India being the first in the region.The agreement was signed in 2009.It was Indias first such trade agreement with any OECD country. South Koreas main emphasis during the early years have remained to deal this region with economic aspect , the role of political diplomacy in the earlier years seems to have been sufficiently imited.This may be due to the fact that it was compeled to focus its foreign policy towards maintaining better relations with its neighbor North Korea, a situation which is obtained in Indian foreign policy as well where its much energy has been invested in dealing with Pakistan.When a country has a difficult neighbour to deal with then its foreign policy projection becomes at least for certain time becomes quite restricted.India and South Korea are its living examples.Due to this compulsion it developed mainly economic relations with the region but analysis reveals that economic relations too were not of much impression as for example the far located country like Brazil had better trade relations with South Korea than any of the South Asian country.South Korea with Brazil in year 2010 had investment of $3.8 billion and its bilateral trade inclusive of export existed at $7.75 billion and import at $4.71 ,In contrast to this its trade relations with India in year 2009 were not too impressive .its export with India was $7.2 billion and import existed at $3.6 billion . The following table provides a basic idea about the South Koreas trade relations with South Asian countries.

South Koreas Export-Import Relationship With Select South Asian Countries

Country India Pakistan Srilanka Bangladesh Afghanistan Bhutan

Year 2009 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009

Export $ 7.2 Billion $ 840 Million $170 Million $ 1.064 billion $ 89 million $ 6.476 Million

Import $ 3.6 billion $ 630 Million $74 Million $ 122 Million $ 1.1 Million $ 13,000

(based on Ministry Of Foreign Affairs and Trade data, Republic of Korea)

This suggests that in realistic manner South Korea is still not targeted this region in effective manner.The economic relations with all South Asian countries suggests that more scope for economic enhancement exist and its political restrictive role is reflected in economic relations as well.It has developed a little better political-economic relations but scope for better improvement lies here , the status with other countries is quite low , indicative of less intensive foreign policy projection of South Korea towards South Asia. Conclusion South Korea has interacted with South Asian countries since a long time.The present paper points on certain elements of south korean foreign policy towards South Asia.These findings may be useful in evolving more fruitful foreign policy projections of South Korea towards South Asia. (A)Findings

South Korean foreign policy towards South Asia can be divided in two phase, after 1978 when the country adopted a new trade policy its emphasis towards South Asia was targeted to enhance its economic relations with the individual countries of the region. The first decade of the new century witnessed South Korea to think beyond the economic matters, this is the second phase of South Korean foreign policy in which it has thought to play a significant role in global politics Asia initiative and Global South Korea like policies and concepts suggest to this direction.Inspite of these new mindset ,though it is still not quite clear to which extent South Korea will invest its energy to South Asia. Second finding is that economic relations have been over emphasized than the political relations in this region. South Korea has been a successful vibrant economy which has given it an opportunity to play a important political role in the South Asia ,but due to self inhibited mindset ,it has yet to find out a still viable role for itself in the region. Thirdly South Korea has not politically engaged and restrained Pakistan which is supposed to be main linking pin in supporting the North Korean nuclear capacity building programme.There has grown up a closer relationship among China, Pakistan, North Korea. These have produced many times negative impact on South Korea. Lastly South Korea is not very far away from those countries where terrorism has targeted the peaceful society, many nearby countries of South Korea face this problem.It is observed that terrorists attempt to find out those locations and places where normalcy exist.South Korea has not given much thought towards .Afghanistan has emerged as the hub of global terror with is institutional support in Pakistan.South Korea has yet to devise an important policy in this respect and rethink about South Asia with a newer perspective. Policy Recommendations Firstly South Korea needs to be more politically active in this region.It needs to assign sufficient political space along with economic relations in the region. Secondly it must foster a strong relations with India .india is also attempting to develop strong relations with South Korea and japan so that its interest could be secured in this area

the role of Chinese navy is likely to increase in the coming years india faces the greatest challenge in its surrounding sea waters hence it is in the process to come closer with these countries. South Korea can make use of convergence of interests. Thirdly South Korea should come closer to the countries in the region which may prove vital to its stakes in thr region Sri Lanka can be one of such example where China is supporting development of infrastructural work .South Korea is technically more advanced in several spheres than any of other Asian countries.It can find out the areas where it can contribute in the development of economic infrastructure and in any other field. This approach can be extended to the other LDC(least developed countries) of the region. Fourthly South Korea should devise a policy to check the evolving relations between Pakistan and North Korea either by enganging Pakistan directly in political manner or develop a framework workable relations with other South Asian nations including India to restrict its those activities which can bring problems to it (South Korea). Finally it must voice its concerns and play a vital role in the containment of terrorism in South Asia.iT needs to BE more careful and active about course of action of global terrorism. It is very much likely that more interactive relationships with South Asian countries not only in economic fields but in political fields may be quite utility ful for the emergence of South Korea in evolving global order with derived effects in the resolution of several of its problem.

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