National Commentaries

When Moon Jae-in announced the “New Southern Policy” (NSP) during his visit to Indonesia in November 2017, the Korean foreign policy watchers scrambled to find out whether there was a “Southern Policy” before. Though it is obvious that no president ever announced a policy of engagement with Southeast Asian countries as a “southern policy,” almost every president since Park Chung-hee had undertaken high-level visits to the region. During the Cold War, at the height of legitimacy competition, South Korea was challenged by the increased number of diplomatic recognitions North Korea gained among the non-aligned movement’s (NAM) members. Southeast Asian members in the NAM supported the DPRK’s admission into the NAM, while South Korea’s application was rejected due to its alliance with the United States.

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