president Moon Jae-in has returned home after wrapping up a three-day trip to
Bangkok where he attended the asean-plus-three and related regional
forums there he held a brief summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a
signaling the possibility of high-level seoul-tokyo dialogue to ease tensions
while also drumming up supports from the region for his peace drive on the Korean
Peninsula president Mun didn't forget to promote
the korea-asean special summit set for the end of this month in South Korea's
port city of Busan today we go in-depth on president moons visit to Thailand
with dr. EJ Hana of the asan Institute for Policy Studies it's good to have you
with us thank you so first of all president moon Jane in Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe a met in Bangkok for a for their first face-to-face in 13
months and their meeting although very brief is gaining largely gaining
positive views how did you see the talks of course the two leaders meeting since
the coup signal for the korea-japan relations but as we all know there was
there wasn't any meeting between the two leaders of and I personally hope this is
their kind of at the beginning of an end with the dispute between the two
countries but of course we have a lot of problems and issues between Korea and
Japan so this is just one leaders meeting cannot solve all the problem
there are so many issues we have to iron out and then after this leaders meeting
the walking river of our robes should come from both sides and the one thing I
am was quite interested in seeing that the meeting although it was shot the
present moon jae-in LED Prime Minister hobby for a talk so it was quite
impressive for me right and also in Bangkok 15 countries including South
Korea China and Japan have agreed on the terms of a massive trade deal known as
the regional comprehensive economic partnership or our SEP which is expected
to be signed next year and the scale of our set reportedly
covers about one-third of the world's total trade volume what does our set
mean to South Korea expected economic effects on the South Korean economy okay
let me just go back a little bit to the early 2000 there were two competing
framework for regional free trade agreement one is East Asian free trade
area the other one is what I call sepia compress to become a partnership in East
Asia these two were quite promising at the time but there was Japan China
rivalry one pushed by Japan the other will push to by China and then when
these two could not make a conclusion the ASEAN countries came up with our
core CPI you just mentioned and of course this appeal or the countries
included 16 countries included in this our step framework and they have been in
negotiation for last six years and there were more than 20 kind of rounds of
negotiations in this summit they finally not reached an agreement on most of the
chapters in this free trade agreement but still we have a big-ish called India
India has kind of a strong or protectionist tradition so we have a big
question India and I hope as we know there is a trade war between the United
States and China is going on and most of the regional countries are quite
dependent on trade for their economic growth so in this context the earth
presiding over step could be start over a strengthening of free trade order in
the region as well as provide some kind of a safety net for the regional
countries so among the countries include India is one nation that we must keep
particular tabs on of course now our set includes all the nations that are part
of president boon Jane's new southern policy which was designed
to to further boost and diversify the diplomatic and economic ties between
Korea and the ASEAN nations could you explain to us how the are SEP agreement
reached in Bangkok would help further boost president moons new southern
policy what Kanu certain countries are the antennas and countries as a resin if
you look at the economic relations between Korea and Southeast Asia at the
moment we have Korea as an per our free trade agreement and on top of that we
have about a third FTAs with Indonesia and BN them and also the Bharata free
trade agreement with Malaysia and the Philippines is in the pipeline and of
course we have us a worker SEPA with India this is comprehensive economic
partnership agreement and so some people may say that this could create worry
cause palatable effect in the region there are so many different FTAs and the
people don't know what to use and which channel so that could be a problem but
if we have more FTA then we have more chance to increase our trade and of
course at the moment the our free trade agreement with ASEAN has the problem
they're low in television great and with the SEPA sorry with this our SEP this
new agreement touches upon something left behind by other regional areas like
intellectual property ecommerce and a single rule for origin and etcetera so
the our sub element could post our trade with the ASEAN countries definitely and
also with India by year 2020 our trade goal with ASEAN countries is 200 billion
US dollars and with India is 50 billion US dollars definitely with our SEP
this achievement - respira well spaghetti bowl i think is a very
interesting term and it also sounds like more efforts more measures are needed to
enhance the utilization of all the existing partnerships now president ones
visit to Thailand comes just ahead just a few weeks before the upcoming a
korea-asean special summit as well as the very first Korea makan summit what
do you think are the implications of that the just indeed summit is quite
important custom you know in this region in his tuition we have an annual summit
at the end of the year as Empress Li is to just saw me as well as ASEAN this is
the one of the biggest annual my traitorous summit and of course we used
to have other m plus one summit at the side over this a 10 plus 3 as a
uncurious separate summit but this year because we have as you just mentioned
the commemorative summit at the end of November there was no ahem plus one
summit but taking this opportunity president moon jaein asked our leaders
to support and and ask them to actively involve in the discussion at the Korea
special summit so already president moon jae-in knows all the leaders over
Southeast Asian countries but it was again they could to catch up with those
leaders and ask their support now president moon has scored an early
achievement of his vow to visit all 10 ASEAN nations during his term which
implies his strong will to find future growth through his policy of new
southern policy now having said that how do you gauge the significance of the
upcoming a korea-asean summit the korea-asean summit is special summit
at the end of November is very important and very meaningful summit because if
South Korea holds this special summit by the end of November then South Korea
will be the first country that hold the special some s three times the at the
moment ASEAN has ten dialogue partners and South Korea is one of those
ten-dollar partners and no country among the stereo partners have had special
service for three times so the this is quite special for South Korea and also I
hope this special summit could be kind of conclusion for Oracle new Sadam
policy 1.20 and the new beginning for the new sedan polish policy 2.0 sorry
I'm taking this opportunity I hope the president moon jae-in could roll out the
new direction and details of the new solemn policy 2.0 now amid Pyongyang of
Washington stalled Pyongyang Washington nuclear negotiations president boon Jane
has once again made efforts in Bangkok to drum up support from the ASEAN
nations for his peace drive on the Korean Peninsula how do you assess
president's efforts on that meant as we just mentioned the DMUs korea-us summit
is kind of standard T or does not make a big progress enlistment so at this
moment South Korean is a lot of international
support or pressure if you like for the parties to resume talk and serious
negotiations toward the denuclearization and of course president moon jae-in
taking this opportunity he made clear commitment in the building peace and
prosperity in the Korean Peninsula especially he made the speech in the
East Asia Summit which include the post u.s. and
so then he clearly sent a message to the leaders and here again the mentioned
were called International Peace Joan that he mentioned in his UN speech at
this time again and the the other thing is that the in this summit present a
moon called cr7 leaders and he could ask again the support from the ASEAN
countries and future role in building peace in the Korean position now what
are some of the expected outcome of the upcoming korea-asean special summit as
well as the Korea mekin summit and what could you could you pinpoint some of the
key points we should watch out for okay as I just mentioned this special summit
to be the new beginning for our South Koreans and the new certain policy for
the US and in India the new Saddam policy already spent two years which was
nice temperature 1.0 and now it's beginning a new stage so in this summit
this summit could be kind of indicator you know or in which direction the new
Saddam policy were unfold in the coming years and the second thing to watch is
what could it be the consents or response among South
South Korea and Southeast Asian countries facing spa power rivaling the
trade war and strategic competition between the United States and in China
both other countries and South Korea are facing kind of strategic dilemma and
their strategic strategy competition so I hope the and the leaders could come
out with some kind of in a consensus regarding this superpower competition
and the the last point I would like to see in this summit is that the present
moon for the show show his sincerity and
commitment that he will pursue Newton policy toward us and in Romania his
tongue and again there are a lot of Christians from Southeast Asian
countries that this policy would continue in the next government as well
so I hope as a present Mangini will show that the make sure that this policy
quote continues in the upcoming in the next government as well one quick last
question before you go it goes without saying that this that the upcoming
korea-asean summit will be economy focused economy centered highlighting
the various economic partnerships between Korea and the ASEAN nations but
do you think it could also serve as an opportunity to boost military
cooperation between Korea and those ASEAN nations well I would say the
military cooperation between Korea and Southeast Asia is a little bit only
because the military issue and defence issue is a bit sensitive both in South
Korea and Southeast Asian countries but definitely the Economic Cooperation is
far ahead of or a capisco operation that includes security military defense and
other nutritional issues so the in this summit I hope the Korean government
called push this peace cooperation a little bit further so that the answer
pillars of cooperation can make balance all right that is all the time we have
for you thank you so much dr. Lee for your insights tonight thank you so much