INTRODUCTION

The fact that the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) officially became Dialogue Partners at the Twenty- fourth ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Kuala Lumpur in July 1991 did not surprise regional commentators. It had been widely known that no effort was spared to gear this bilateral relationship onto higher planes. Many researchers, including Kwon Yul, state that this relationship has witnessed consistent growth over the past four decades. It should also be noted that this success “largely derives from the complementarities between both sides”.

There are undoubtedly common interests and potentials for further development between Korea and ASEAN. More importantly, Korea–ASEAN co-operation has led to the adoption of an inclusive approach, which attaches importance to the development of the new members of ASEAN, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam (CLMV for short). This chapter argues that such an approach is not only beneficial to the new members of ASEAN, the other ASEAN members, and Korea, but also East Asia as a whole.

IS ASEAN A RELEVANT PARTNER?

The ASEAN leaders’ summit in Bali in October 2003 reaffirmed the commitment to establish by 2020 an ASEAN community consisting of three pillars: the ASEAN Economic Community, the ASEAN Security Community, and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. ASEAN is known all over the world for its care of its member countries without which ASEAN would not have accomplished its achievements of the past thirty-eight years. In the economic sphere, economies of scale provided the rationale behind the ASEAN embrace of all Southeast Asian countries into its fold. All together ASEAN has a combined population of more than 520 million, a total GDP of over US$680 billion. The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) was set in motion twelve years ago and the more developed ASEAN economies have decided to reduce the tariff level in goods from 5 to 0 per cent.