The role of Korea in East Asian regional economic cooperation

Abstract

The East Asian region has seen an increase of intra-regional trade and investment ties since the 1990s. Despite increasing interdependence within the region, efforts to develop regional cooperation scheme have been very weak. No official regional cooperation entity was ever formed among East Asian countries. This lack of regional cooperative body partially results from the passive attitudes of key countries such as Japan and China. The mood, however, changed after the financial crisis of 1997. Major countries in the region began to involve in regional economic cooperation. Korea successfully overcome the 1997-98 financial crisis and began to play an active role in East Asian economic cooperation. This article examines the role of Korea in the East Asian regional economic cooperation. Firstly, it discusses the trajectory of East Asian regionalism and the role of Korea in it. Secondly, recent initiatives by Korea in East Asian regional cooperation especially in ASEAN+3 process are discussed. Thirdly, the paper introduces the Korea's bid for regional hub manifested in the Northeast Asian Economic Hub Strategy by the Roh Moo-hyun government and examines the tasks for the success of the Strategy. Conclusion part briefly touches on the implication of Korea's regional economic hub strategy for the ROK-US relationship.