South Korea' New Southern Policy and Its Implications Towards Indonesia and Vietnam

This paper aims to analyze the South Korea's New Southern Policy (NSP) and Its implications towards Indonesia and Vietnam. The NSP is a policy that was formed during Moon Jae-In's presidency and is aimed at elevating South Korea's strategic ties with countries in the southern hemisphere, such as the ASEAN Member States (AMS) and India, as it faces a number of economic cooperation challenges with the four major powers namely China, Japan, Russia, and the United States. This paper suggests that this policy, even though far from perfect, is being pursued by South Korea as an effort to form cooperation that is on a comparable level with its cooperation with major power states, and that calibrated and targeted South Korean roles even in small-scale projects are welcome and that the NSP is the right tool to achieve South Korea's interests in the region and specifically in Indonesia and Vietnam to curb its heavy reliance on its major allies by diversifying its relations to achieve prosperity, sustainability, and a more peaceful Asia.