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South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien during an official luncheon for Lee’s South Korea visit at the Blue House on Nov. 23. (Kim Jung-hyo, staff photographer)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived in Busan on Nov. 24 to host a three-day South Korea-ASEAN special summit beginning on Nov. 25, as well as the inaugural Mekong-Republic of Korea Summit.

The summit is the largest-scale international meeting to be held in South Korea since Moon took office. Moon plans to hold bilateral summits with all nine ASEAN heads of state in attendance. The Blue House plans to use the summit as an occasion for boosting cooperation with ASEAN member states and accelerating the pursuit of its “New Southern Policy.”

Following a summit with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Nov. 23, Moon held another summit at the Blue House on the morning of Nov. 24 with Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah. In addition to their existing cooperation in the areas of infrastructure and energy, the two leaders agreed to expand their collaboration into high-tech industry areas including ICT, smart cities, and e-government.

In the afternoon, Moon attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the “Eco Delta” smart city project in Busan. The Blue House and Moon administration plan to use the summit as an opportunity to broaden the scope of its collaboration with ASEAN as a region with major growth potential. The administration estimates that if the scale of trade with ASEAN countries -- which are currently recording annual growth rates in the range of 5-6% -- can be increased to US$200 billion by 2020, the region can be developed into a market on par with China.

To this end, the Blue House plans to intensify economic cooperation through a South Korea-ASEAN “joint vision statement” including concrete plans for collaboration with ASEAN. The statement is also to include directions for collaboration in different areas, including the development of a South Korea-ASEAN strategic partnership, efforts to establish a peaceful region, and stronger partnerships in the areas of economy, society, and culture.

The next question is whether the summit can inject some momentum toward achieving progress with the Korean Peninsula peace progress, which currently remains at an impasse. Moon originally envisioned a South Korea visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during the event -- an idea that failed to pan out after it was rejected by Pyongyang. But with North Korea maintaining diplomatic relationships with all of ASEAN members, the series of summits with different heads of state could be an opportunity to make progress in breaking inter-Korean relations out of their deadlock, the Blue House explained.

An unmanned security vehicle in operation on Nov. 24, the day before the 2019 South Korea-ASEAN special summit in Busan. (Blue House photo pool)

By Seong Yeon-cheol, staff reporter

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