New report: Mapping out EU and South Korea relations
What is the perspective of key EU member states towards South Korea? This new report shows that there is a clear trend towards greater cooperation between key EU member states and South Korea, regardless of who is in power in South Korea. Björn Jerdén, head of the UI Asia programme, contributes to the report from The Institute for European Studies (IES).
While EU and South Korea relations have attracted growing attention in recent years, the relationship between key EU member states and the Asian country remains underexplored. This report addresses this omission by describing and analysing the recent evolution of the relationship between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Sweden, on the one hand, and South Korea on the other. The report covers the areas of economic relations, security relations, bilateral relations and North Korea, and cultural relations.
The report shows that there is a clear trend towards greater cooperation between key EU member states and South Korea. This trend holds regardless of who is in power in South Korea, with the report covering the second half of the Lee Myung-bak government, the whole Park Geun-hye government, and the first half of the Moon Jae-in government. The trend also holds regardless of the type of government in the EU member states analysed.
The report is published by The KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Institute for European Studies, the primary contact point in Europe on policy issues related to Korea and the Korean Peninsula.