New Southern Policy
The New Southern Policy
The New Southern Policy (NSP) is a new policy paradigm and the Republic of Korea’s core diplomatic initiative announced in 2017 by President Moon Jae-in. The policy is aimed at realizing mutual prosperity and peace not only on the Korean Peninsula but in East Asia and the world. The NSP envisions a Korea-ASEAN Future Community that emphasizes the 3P: People, Prosperity and Peace. To this end, the policy seeks to elevate Korea's relations with ASEAN member states and India in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres, among others, to same Korea maintains with the four major powers (the United States, China, Japan, and Russia).
Having absorbed opinions and suggestions from the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit in 2019, Korea established NSP 2.0 to better align NSP and ASEAN core principles.
Brief History
Announced in 2017, NSP has dramatically strengthened ties between Republic of Korea and ASEAN as “strategic partners”. ASEAN has become Korea's second-largest trading partner and Korea is ASEAN's fifth-largest.
Proving his commitment to the NSP, President Moon Jae-in visited all ten ASEAN countries within one presidential term and became the first Korean President to have done so. Indonesia was the first country he visited back in 2017 marking the significance of Indonesia as the center of the policy.
During the 21st ASEAN-Republic of Korea Summit in 2020, President Moon Jae-in unveiled the NSP Plus to advance the policy by including health and medical cooperation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
