President Yoon Suk-yeol has participated in the NATO Summit held in Madrid on June 29th-30th, along with the leaders of the organization’s three other key Asia-Pacific partners: Australia, Japan, and New Zealand. This is the first time that the leaders of the four countries have been invited to attend a NATO summit, a symbol of the growing ties between the transatlantic security organization and its four Asia-Pacific partners.

President Yoon Suk-yeol’s Special Envoy to the EU Kim Gi-hyeon is leading a seven member delegation to Europe from June 5th-11th. The delegation plans to visit Brussels and Strasbourg for meetings with leaders of the different EU institutions and NATO, as well as Paris for meetings with the Emmanuel Macron government and since France currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

This report aims at initiating a positive reflection process within the new South Korean government and EU institutions to boost bilateral political, economic, and security cooperation, by focusing on four areas; (1) Green strategic partnership; including green growth, green tech, and sustainable supply chains; (2) Digital cooperation; including resilience against cyber threats, rule and standard setting, and next generation networks; (3) Bilateral FTA modernisation; including digital trade; and (4) Facing together geopolitical challenges from US–China competition in the context of Beijing’s assertiveness, inter-Korean relations, and the need to deal with a Russia that has chosen to confront the existing international order and law. 

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has stated that the main goal of his foreign policy will be to make South Korea a “global pivotal state”, with a focus on promoting freedom, peace, and prosperity based on Seoul’s liberal democratic values and – crucially – cooperation. There is often talk about Seoul’s “strategic dilemma” between the United States – its long-standing ally – and China – its largest economic partner. In reality, South Korean policy-makers have long been acting as if their country has a “strategic non-dilemma”.

Yoon Suk-yeol was elected as the next South Korean president on March 9th. The election campaign did not focus on foreign policy issues for the most part, but president-elect Yoon has pledged to make South Korea a more active player in global affairs. We can expect this to include relations with Europe: European countries, the EU, and NATO. In fact, discussions about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine became part of the election campaign, which shows that South Korea’s more prominent role in global affairs demands that it pays more attention to developments in Europe.

South Korean voters have elected Yoon Suk-yeol as their next president. What can be expected from the president-elect in terms of foreign policy once he takes office in two months’ time? This Korea Chair Explains analyses the potential foreign policy of the president-elect towards North Korea, the United States, and China.

rapid actions and no further delays are required. Changes of administrations, however, always create uncertainty because of the change in persons, programs and priorities. On the other hand, commitments made at COP26 were incurred by the Korean government and the international community expects South Korea to resolutely engage in line with its development and CO2 consumption, past and future, and to honour its Green New Deal.

South Korea has become an increasingly important foreign policy actor as a result of its economic development, military build-up, democratic credentials and, it should be noted, geographical location. However, South Korea’s involvement in global discussions has grown during the Moon presidency as the Sino-American rivalry has grown and, in politico-diplomatic terms, Seoul has sided with its fellow democracies. In recent weeks, South Korea has also been part of discussions with partners about the design of sanctions to be imposed on Russia if it invaded Ukraine, as Moscow has finally done. Once the invasion has taken place, Seoul has gone ahead and joined sanctions.

Moon Jae-in has entered his last few weeks as South Korean president. A new president will be elected on March 9th and take office in May. Differently to previous South Korean presidents, Moon has not had a real lame-duck period. This has been the result of his Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) holding a supermajority in the National Assembly, as well as the need for active government intervention to manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the pandemic is set to define Moon’s legacy as much as the policies that his government enacted during its first three years in office. What are the key domestic legacies of the Moon Jae-in presidency? And what have been the main domestic shortcomings of the Moon Jae-in presidency?

air asked the foreign policy teams of the candidates of the two leading South Korean parties to answer four questions about relations between South Korea and Europe. These are the answers from the team of Candidate Yoon Suk-yeol exactly as received.