[Weekender] Korea, ASEAN to mark 25 years of ties

Marking their 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations, Korea and ASEAN are poised to formulate a vision for their future partnership at a summit in Busan next week.

President Park Geun-hye will host the leaders of the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ― Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam ― during the meeting scheduled for Dec. 11-12. 

The 11 heads of state are expected to review their partnerships and discuss ways to expand bilateral cooperation. They will also explore ways to respond better and in a more coordinated manner to climate change, natural disasters and security issues at a separate session before unveiling a vision statement at the end of the event.

Some 3,000 policymakers, entrepreneurs, artists and scholars are expected to visit the southern port city throughout the two-day event, which will also include a CEO summit, science technology conference, youth forum, film festival, exhibitions of paintings and sculptures, and other auxiliary events.

The agenda reflects the two sides’ efforts to give greater weight to political and security cooperation, which has long been somewhat outshone by vibrant economic and cultural exchanges. Skeptics also cite inevitable limits stemming from differences in political systems inside the bloc and also with Seoul. 

“The sides should foster their relationship in line with its upgraded strategic partnership status through the summit, for which striking a balance between political and economic and cultural collaboration is key,” said Chung Hae-moon, secretary-general of the ASEAN-Korea Center.

“Nontraditional security areas can be a good starting point given pressing needs at a regional level. In principle, they can also address North Korea’s nuclear program, which poses the biggest threat to East Asia security, and maritime security issues such as in the South and East China Seas.”

Established in 1989, the relationship between South Korea and ASEAN has sharply intensified on the back of brisk trade, investment and economic assistance as well as ever-growing cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

But there have also been tense moments ― originating partly from North Korea, which has diplomatic ties with all 10 member nations.

In 1983, North Korean agents detonated a bomb in Yangon in an apparent attempt to assassinate visiting President Chun Doo-hwan, killing instead 17 senior Seoul officials. When some ASEAN countries defied international resolutions to condemn Pyongyang’s military provocations in favor of calling both Koreas to refrain from further violence, this was considered a diplomatic failure in Seoul, with critics pointing to their clandestine arms cooperation and party-to-party exchanges with the communist state.

The summit coincides with sweeping changes in some ASEAN member states. Major democratic and economic reforms have been underway in Myanmar since a nominally civilian government took power in 2011, putting an end to the long reign of the military junta. While Vietnam and Laos are striving to open up their economies to the outside world, Indonesia is set to consolidate its fledgling democracy under its “first people’s president,” the newly elected Joko Widodo.

In keeping with the transitions, the countries that once cherished close ties with North Korea now appear to be ratcheting up pressure on it to give up its nuclear program and improve its human rights situation.

“We now want to have a more substantive relationship with (South) Korea in not just economic and sociocultural aspects that we’ve focused on, but also political and security areas,” I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, the ASEAN-SOM leader at Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview last month with visiting South Korean reporters.

“The details of the vision statement are being worked out currently also with other ASEAN member states so it will take time until its finalization. But I believe it does need to address the North Korean nuclear issue and we will discuss that.”

Seoul normally holds a summit with the regional bloc ― one of its core dialogue partners ― every year on the sidelines of ASEAN-based multinational conferences. It opened a mission to the association in Jakarta in October 2012.

ASEAN is the country’s second-biggest trade partner after China, with exports between the two surpassing $135.3 billion last year. Korean builders secured $14.3 billion worth of contracts in the region in 2013 alone.

The two sides forged a “sectoral” dialogue partnership in 1989 and elevated it to a strategic partnership in 2010.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)