Future proof? Korea's Indo-Pacific strategy

The Indo-Pacific Strategy will be linked to Yoon's success or failure

Seoul’s Indo-Pacific Strategy has been broadly welcomed by a number of states in the region who view the platform as further aligning with their strategic outlook. It’s in these states’ interests that the Indo-Pacific Strategy is future proof – it won’t be an easy task.

On 11 November 2022 in Phnom Penh, President Yoon Seok Yul presented an outline of South Korea’s Indo-Pacific Strategy to the region. On 28 December in Seoul, his foreign minister presented the strategy in detail to the diplomatic community, and in turn, the South Korean public. From that point onwards, the Indo-Pacific Strategy became the Yoon Administration’s core foreign policy initiative. This has implications for South Korea’s Indo-Pacific future.

South Korea’s foreign policy balances between continuity and disruption. Like other democratic states, continuity derives from bureaucratic and administrative momentum while disruption derives from political change. However, in the case of South Korea, how these forces are…