Mekong – Republic of Korea Cooperation Current Situation, Prospects and Role of Vietnam

Tran Xuan Thuy¹

Abstract: Due to its geostrategic location and economic potential, the Mekong subregion has been increasingly interested and engaged by major powers. In 2019, The Republic of Korea (ROK) officially upgraded its cooperation with the Mekong subregion countries to the highest level by organizing the First Mekong-ROK Summit (November 2019, Busan). This development shows the increasingly important role of the Mekong subregion in the strategy of the powers, at the same time reflecting the complex picture of competition among the powers in the Mekong subregion. Being one of the important partners of ROK in the region, Vietnam can enhance its active role in the subregion‟s cooperation in general as well as in the Mekong-ROK cooperation in particular.

Keywords: ROK, Vietnam, Mekong Subregion Cooperation

With a total area of nearly 2 million km² and 250 million people, the Mekong subregion with 5 countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam is one of the regions with important geopolitical and economic positions in Asia Pacific.

Located in the center of ASEAN, directly connected with major economies such as China and India, with an average economic growth rate of over 6% per year, the Mekong subregion has recently become an important hub in the process of regional connection and economic integration. Mekong subregion‟s cooperation is an essential channel to strengthen the peaceful and stable environment to promote integration and development in the Mekong river basin. Mekong cooperation frameworks play the role to coordinate efforts and provide a forum for dialogue and trust- building among Mekong countries to find solutions to common challenges based on mutual interest. The Mekong sub-region has now become an area where major countries such as the US, China, Japan are competing for influence.² Strategically, the Mekong subregion is part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States and Japan, the Belt and Road Initiative of China and Act East Policy of India. In terms of specific implementation, Japan has provided the Mekong countries with around USD 17 billion in the period from 2009 to 2018. The US has provided USD 50 million for the Lower Mekong Initiative in the period 2013- 2015 and pledged USD 1.25 million to launch the Sustainable Infrastructure Partnership (SIP) in 2016-2018. India contributes US$1 million annually to the Quick Impact Projects (QIP) Revolving Fund for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) and continuously grants scholarships to Mekong countries³.

Given this context, South Korea is one of the important partners of the Mekong subregion. In 2019, after nine meetings of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, South Korea decided to upgrade Mekong-ROK cooperation to the summit level⁴. Being a middle power and having close economic relations with the subregion countries, South Korea is expected to share the experiences of "Han river miracle" to create "Mekong river miracle" for countries in the subregion. 2020 is the year marking 10 years of Mekong- ROK cooperation. There have been various researches assessing South Korea‟s investment and trade cooperation projects in the Mekong subregion. However, there have not been many studies looking at the overall process of 10 years of cooperation in the combination of both bilateral and multilateral perspectives. Therefore, the paper desires to review this process, then forecast future development directions as well as consider the role of Vietnam in Mekong-ROK cooperation.

1. Mekong – ROK cooperation process in the past 10 years

From the bilateral perspective, South Korea established the diplomatic relations with Thailand in 1958 and Myanmar in 1975 but mainly implemented the trade and investment relations with Thailand from the 1980s. South Korea established the diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1992, with Laos in 1995 and Cambodia in 1997. In the period from 1998 to 2008, South Korea‟s policies towards countries in the Mekong subregion mainly focused on bilateral aids and foreign direct investment. In 2009, President Lee Myung-bak promoted the "New Asia Initiative", making this continent a major partner of South Korea, in which focusing on the relations with ASEAN countries⁵.

From the multilateral perspective, Mekong-ROK cooperation is based on the development process of ASEAN-ROK relations. From the sectorial dialogue relations in 1989, ASEAN and South Korea established full Dialogue Partner in 1991, and then became comprehensive partners in 2004, and strategic partners in 2010. In this process, one of the ROK‟s priority in the Southeast Asia is the cooperation with the Mekong Sub-region countries. The initiative of Mekong-ROK cooperation was presented at the 13^th ASEAN-ROK Summit (October 29, 2010) when President Lee Myung-bak proposed the Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers Meeting to strengthen political and economic relations between Mekong countries and South Korea, narrow the development gaps and support the building process of the ASEAN Community. The 1^st Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers' Meeting (October 2011, Seoul) adopted the "Han River Declaration" on establishing “The Mekong-ROK Comprehensive Partnership for Mutual Prosperity”⁶. Accordingly, the ROK and Mekong countries have identified three priority sectors of cooperation, namely: ASEAN Connectivity (Infrastructure, ICT); Sustainable Development (Green Growth, Water Resource development); People- oriented Development (Agriculture and Rural Development, Human Resource Development). The Han River Declaration, with the vision of mutual prosperity, has opened up opportunities for Korean entrepreneurs to access the Mekong region with abundant human resources, stable economic development, where they have competitive advantages. Further, Korean entrepreneurs can access a unified ASEAN market as the progress of building the ASEAN Community has been accelerating⁷.

Mekong-ROK cooperation continues to be set high in New Southern Policy (NSP) announced by President Moon Jae-in in 2017. For the first time, South Korea's foreign policy priority has gone beyond the traditional "four powers", namely the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

Cooperation with ASEAN, including the Mekong subregion, has become one of the top priorities in Korean foreign policy. In November 2017, during the visit to Vietnam and attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC), President Moon unveiled the "ASEAN-ROK Future Community Vision" with basic principles of implementing the "New Southern Policy". This vision is based on 3Ps: the People community, the Prosperity community, and the Peace community.

The NSP, which is shifting to enhance relations with Southeast Asian countries was introduced in the context that Seoul has been seeking to reduce its dependence on traditional trading partners such as China and the United States⁸. The NSP is based on two pillars of Peace and Prosperity with sixteen priorities⁹.

Unlike previous policies, President Moon‟s NSP places ASEAN countries in general and Mekong countries in particular at a very high position in ROK‟s foreign policy. In terms of implementation, South Korea established a special Presidential Committee for the New Southern Policy, tripled the number of diplomats at the Korean Permanent Mission to ASEAN¹⁰ and strengthened diplomatic missions in other ASEAN countries. President Moon Jae-in immediately sent special envoys to ASEAN countries after taking office and paid the high-level visits to all ten ASEAN countries within two years.

Directions for Promoting the New Southern Policy

Source: Presidential Committee for the New Southern Policy

In addition to the general policy for ASEAN, on September 5, 2019 in Vientiane, President Moon Jae-in announced a strategy on closer partnerships with countries in the Mekong subregion. The " Korea - Mekong Vision" launched by President Moon Jae-in aims at the goal of "mutual prosperity" comprising three pillars: Prosperity based on shared experience; Sustainable Prosperity and Peace and Mutual-Prosperity in East Asia¹². South Korea hopes to prosper together with countries in the Mekong subregion and hopes that the "Han River Miracle" will lead to the "Mekong River Miracle". The most important priority is infrastructure construction, whereby South Korea will support the construction of bridges, roads, railways and sea ports in Mekong countries. In the field of sustainable development, President Moon emphasized the need to protect the Mekong River from the impacts of climate change and natural disasters, as well as proposed green growth strategies¹³.

In November 2019, the Mekong-ROK Summit held on the 27^th in Busan discussed promoting cooperation for mutual prosperity and adopted the "Mekong-Han River Declaration". The statement expressed the agreement of Mekong countries and South Korea in promoting Mekong-ROK cooperation based on three pillars of People, Prosperity and Peace, and seven priority sectors: (i) culture and tourism, (ii) human resources development, (iii) agriculture and rural development, (iv) infrastructure, (v) information and communications technology (ICT), (vi) environment, (vii) nontraditional security challenges¹⁴. The Summit agreed on developing ITC-driven projects including E- government and Smart Cities that would promote the digital economy towards 4^th Industrial Revolution. ICT is emphasized as a driving force for innovation, sustainable economic development and prosperity in the region. In addition, the parties agreed to establish the "Mekong-ROK Biodiversity Center" to promote biodiversity conservation in the Mekong subregion and the "Mekong- ROK Joint Research Center on Water Resources" based in South Korea.

2. Some key achievements

Based on the above-mentioned visions and orientations, Mekong-ROK cooperation has implemented two action plans: (i) Action Plan for the period of 2014-2017 adopted at the 4^th Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers‟ Meeting (Seoul, July 28- 29, 2014); Action Plan for the period of 2017-2020 was approved at the 7^th Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers‟ Meeting (Busan, September 1, 2017) with 3 specific visions: connectivity enhancement, sustainable development and people-centered development¹⁵. The implementation process has achieved positive results in many fields, contributing to narrowing the development gaps, enhancing regional connectivity and building the ASEAN Community.

In term of financial mechanism, The Mekong-ROK Cooperation Fund (MKCF) was established in 2013. During the period 2013-2019, MKCF provided US$ 7.42 million to foster regional cooperation through more than 20 projects on human resource development in 6 priority sectors: infrastructure, information communication technology, green growth, water resource development, agriculture and rural development, and human resource development¹⁶. These projects have practically contributed to the socio- economic development of Mekong countries, notably the research project on inland waterways on the Mekong River, the ICT application project in culture, the water resource management project on the Mekong River related to fishing in Tonlé Sap Lake, the vocational training project, etc. Some projects that Vietnam is implementing include the project on developing the tripartite cooperation among Academics - Industries - Government to cultivate skills and promote industrialization in Vietnam, the project to improve the capacity of e-commerce application in agriculture in the Mekong subregion.

In term of business networking mechanism, The Mekong-ROK Business Forum was held for the first time in 2012. So far, there have been seven forums held with the participation of government officials and businesses of South Korea and Mekong countries to promote public-private partnership. The forum has opened opportunities for extensive cooperation for small and medium enterprises, actively contributing to the subregion‟s development. Especially, these business forums provide opportunities for South Korean companies and investors to explore markets and resources in the subregion. Two-way trade between South Korea and the Mekong in 2018 reached USD 84.5 billion, an increase of 2.4 times compared to 2010. South Korea's ODA to Mekong countries in 2018 accounted for 20% of her total ODA¹⁷.

3. Cooperation prospects

In the coming time, with the New Southern Policy and the upgrading of Mekong-ROK cooperation to the summit level, South Korea will continue raising interests and resources in the cooperation with Mekong countries. The noticeable new point is that South Korea started to emphasize cooperation for infrastructure construction in multilateral cooperation with the Mekong subregion, thereby paving the way for large-scale projects compared to the implementation of small-scale projects in the past 10 years. Mostly like Japan, South Korea will use the Mekong-ROK multilateral cooperation mechanism to coordinate large-scale bilateral programs and projects with Mekong countries. In the long term, for ROK, cooperation with the subregion plays a key role in: (i) sustain the role of ROK as an important development partner in the region; (ii) utilize the sub- regional markets and resources, and creating opportunities for South Korean entrepreneurs and investors to have better access to the region¹⁸.

Compared to other big countries in the region, South Korea's involvement in the Mekong subregion has its own features: (i) The ROK's approach focuses mainly on economic cooperation rather than on geo- political competition. The priorities of the ROK are mostly in line with the development interests of the Mekong countries; (ii) The ROK has an advantage in historical relations and has no direct interest conflict with the Mekong countries. The development experience of the ROK is also beneficial to the Mekong countries. Although South Korea's financial commitment to the Mekong subregion is less than that of China or Japan, the country has a strength in the field of ICT and telecommunications in which, the prominent field is smart technology along with the miraculous economic development - also known as the "Miracle of the Han River";

(iii) As an ally of the United States, South Korea can coordinate with the United States, Japan and Australia to improve the effectiveness of cooperation within the sub- region. On the margins of the East Asia Summit in Bangkok, Thailand in November 2019, the US and ROK held bilateral consultations on coordinated action in promoting cooperation between the US Indo-Pacific strategy and South Korea's New Southern Policy. Two countries emphasized the priorities in the fields of energy, infrastructure, financial services, digital economy and human development¹⁹.

The upgrade of Mekong – ROK cooperation to the summit level shows the ROK's commitment and priority towards ASEAN in general and the Mekong subregion in particular. Moreover, ROK's New Southern Policy represents a clear strategic adjustment to reduce its economic dependence on the United States and China, which accounted for 38.1% of ROK's exports in 2015-2017²⁰. China's retaliatory measures against South Korea's deployment of its terminal high-altitude missile defense system (THAAD) cost South Korea about USD 7.5 billion. The US-China trade war resulted in 21.3% reduction in South Korea‟s exports to China²¹, while the Japanese ban on the export of high-tech materials directly threatened the development of smart phone industry, TV, chemical and other high-tech industries of Korea²². Difficulties in relations with major partners, together with the attractiveness and stability of the Mekong subregion, are strong motivations for the South Korean government and entrepreneurs to adjust their strategies and expand their space of survival and development. It can be affirmed that the growth rate and the economic development potentials of ASEAN, especially countries in the Mekong subregion, not only make them become attractive markets but also play a decisive role to the ROK‟s economy in the future.

Participating in Mekong sub-regional cooperation as a donor for development cooperation projects has important implication for the efforts of the ROK as the middle power. South Korea has been gradually realizing the importance of enhancing the regional integration and participating in multilateral cooperation institutions in the context of the unstable world and the increasing US-China competition. South Korea is also trying hard to well-position itself in the regional order.

4. The role of Vietnam in Mekong- ROK cooperation

In term of strategies, Vietnam is ROK's leading partner in the region and plays an active role in promoting Mekong-ROK cooperation. The success of development cooperation between South Korea and Vietnam could become a model for bilateral cooperation between South Korea and other Mekong countries. South Korea always states that Vietnam is one of the most important countries in ASEAN. In an interview with the Vietnam News Agency on November 19, 2019, the New Southern Policy Committee‟s Chairman Joo Hyung Chul affirmed: “I believe that the ROK- Vietnam ties play the most important role in the promotion of the New Southern Policy and in the push of ROK-Mekong region cooperation as well as the ROK-ASEAN relations ”²³. With the dual role of Chair of ASEAN 2020 and non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (2020-2021), as well as a co-coordinating country for Mekong-ROK cooperation in 2020, Vietnam can foster its central role in enhancing cooperation and connectivity in the region, especially in promoting cooperation among different mechanisms in the region to optimize the subregion‟s development resources.

For its part, Vietnam always attaches great importance to, provides support and contributes to deepening ASEAN-ROK relations in general and Mekong-ROK in particular, takes South Korea as one of the most important partners, which have many practical contributions and supports to ASEAN's efforts in building the Community, enhancing connectivity and narrowing the development gaps. Speaking at the 1^st Mekong-ROK Summit, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized the three main goals that Mekong-ROK cooperation should aim to, namely: strengthening the regional peace environment; promoting people-centered economic development and innovation- driven economic development, as well as economic growth in tandem with environmental protection and conservation of natural resources.

To achieve these goals, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Mekong-ROK cooperation should pay special attention to:

1. developing transport and information technology infrastructure, developing transport, energy and urban infrastructure; and sharing experiences and policies of development in information technology, e- government and 5G network deployment;
2. developing high-quality human resources through promoting cooperation to improve the quality of education - training and strengthening scientific and technological cooperation; encouraging scholarship programs and expert exchanges; promoting cooperation in R&D and providing strong support for startup projects; (iii) encouraging green growth and water management: sharing management experiences for inter- reservoirs, ecosystems, transboundary groundwater and wastewater treatment technology; strengthening cooperation in developing and implementing green growth strategies, applying circulating economic models, and adapting to climate change²⁴.

In economic term, South Korea is the largest investor in Vietnam with the total registered capital as of September 2019 reaching USD 65.7 billion. Vietnam is the fourth largest foreign investment partner of South Korea after the US, China and Hong Kong²⁵. Along with investment activities, the scale of trade between the two countries is also constantly increasing. Vietnam is one of only two ASEAN countries having the bilateral free trade agreement with South Korea (along with Singapore). In 2018, the trade turnover between South Korea and Mekong countries achieved USD 84.5 billion²⁶, of which Vietnam alone accounted for USD 65.8 billion. In terms of socio- cultural relations, the most favorite destination for Korean people among ASEAN countries is Viet Nam with 3.4 million visitors in 2018 (compared to the second-ranked country of Thailand with 1.8 million visitors)²⁷.

In term of peace process on the Korean Peninsula, South Korean scholars believe that Vietnam has a close relationship with North Korea and is one of the most suitable countries that can give North Korea advice on opening-up and reforming policies as well as denuclearization. Therefore, Vietnam plays an important role not only for the success of the New Southern Policy, but also for the peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.²⁸. With the successful host of the 2nd US-PDRK Summit in Ha Noi, Vietnam has successfully affirmed her diplomatic role in mediation, creating a good image in the hearts of the South Korean public.

Conclusions

With the implementation of the New Southern Policy and the hosting of the Mekong-ROK Summit, President Moon Jae- in's administration has strongly affirmed South Korea's commitments to the Mekong subregion in order to build a common prosperous future and to find a suitable position for South Korea in the regional order, escaping the dependence on traditional partners such as the US, China, Japan, etc. For Vietnam, the Mekong subregion is her direct "security and development space". Cooperation mechanisms in the subregion, including the Mekong-ROK cooperation, are one of the important channels to attract resources for national development, especially in the field of infrastructure development. The Mekong cooperation also enhances the effectiveness of the regional cooperation in specific issues such as water security, disaster prevention, etc. Vietnam has good relations with all major countries and is an active member in all sub-regional mechanisms. With the advantages in her relations with South Korea, Vietnam is considered as an important factor helping South Korea to participate more deeply in the sub-regional cooperation, promoting development cooperation for mutual benefit between the Mekong subregion and South Korea. This is the issue that needs further in-depth study in each specific industry and each sector so that we may take advantages of most of opportunities and limit challenges from the increasing trend of interest and engagement of great powers, including South Korea, in the subregion. All of these thereby would contribute to the effective implementation of the Party and State's foreign policy, including documents of the XII Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Resolution 22-NQ/TW of the Politburo on international integration issued in April 2013, Central Resolution 8 (9th Congress) on Strategy for national defense in the new situation, Resolution No. 06-NQ /TW of XII Congress dated 5 November 2016 on effective implementation of international economic integration and maintenance of socio-economic stability in the context of Vietnam joining a new generation of free trade agreements and the Secretariat's Directive No. 25-CT/TW on promoting and enhancing the multilateral diplomacy to 2030./.

___________________________________

¹ MA, MOFA of Vietnam

² Le Trung Kien (2020), “The involvement of the United States, China and Japan in the Mekong subregion through multilateral cooperation mechanisms: Some policy proposals for Vietnam”, Communist Review, vol 933 – 01/2020.

³ Nguyen Xuan Phuc (2018), “Mekong: The River of cooperation and development”, Online Newspaper of the Government. http://bao chinhphu.vn/Hoi-nghi-Thuong- dinh-GMS-6-va-Hoi-nghi-Cap-cao-CLV-10/Me-Cong- Dong-song-hop-tac-va-phat-trien/332869.vgp.

⁴ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (2019), “Press Release by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea following 2019 Mekong – ROK Senior Officials‟ Meeting”.

⁵ Embassy of ROK to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (2019), “The Purpose and Overall Direction of the New Asia Initiative”. http://overseas.mofa.go.kr/.

⁶ MOFA of Vietnam (2011), “Press Release of MOFA of Vietnam on the First ROK-Mekong Ministerial Meeting”. 

⁷ VOV (2014), “Vietnam actively promotes Mekong-ROK Cooperation”, https://vovworld.vn/vi-VN/binh-luan/viet- nam-tich-cuc-thuc-day-hop-tac-mekong-han-quoc- 259083.vov.

⁸ Hoang Thi Ha and Glenn Ong (2020), “Assesing the ROK‟s New Southern Policy towards ASEAN”, ISEAS Perspective, no.7/2020, https://www.iseas.edu.sg/wp- content/uploads/pdfs/ISEAS_Perspective_2020_7.pdf

⁹ The Presidential Committee on New Southern Policy (2019), “Policy Introduction”, http://www.nsp.go.kr/eng/ policy/policy02Page.do.

¹⁰ Lim Sung Nam (2019), “South Korea‟s New Southern Policy: Walk to the border, sail to the island”, The Jakarta Post, https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2019/11/ 15/koreas-new-southern-policy-walk-to-the-border-sail-to-the-island.html.

¹² The World and Vietnam Report (2019), The South Korean President announces "ROK-Mekong Vision", https://baoquoc te.vn/tong-thong-han-quoc-cong-bo-tam- nhin-mekong-100637.html.

¹³ The Korea Herald (2019), “Moon unveils vision for Korea‟s cooperation with Mekong region”, http://www. koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190905000939.

¹⁴ The World and Vietnam Report (2019), “Will the Hangang Miracle become the Mekong Miracle?”, https://bao quocte.vn/lieu-ky-tich-song-han-co-tro-thanh- ky-tich-song-mekong-105518.html.

¹⁵ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (2017), “Press Release by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea following 2017 Mekong-ROK Minister Meeting”.

¹⁶ Mekong Institute (2019), “Mekong-ROK Fund Project Introduction”. https://www.mekonginstitute.org/what-we- do/development-funds/mekong-rok-cooperation-fund/.

¹⁷ Lee Chi-dong (2019), “S. Korea, Mekong nations pick 7 priority cooperation sectors in Busan summit”, Yonhap News Agency, https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN201911 27002251315.

¹⁸ Le Trung Kien (2018), “Participation of some countries in the Mekong subregion through subregional cooperation mechanism and the references to Vietnam”, International Studies, 1 (112), pp. 131 - 151.

¹⁹ US Embassy in Seoul (2019), “U.S. & ROK Issue a Joint Factsheet on their Regional Cooperation Efforts”, https://kr.usembassy.gov/110219-joint-fact-sheet-by-the- united-states-and-the-republic-of-korea-on-cooperation- between-the-new-southern-policy-and-the-indo-pacific- strategy/.

²⁰ Hoang Thi Ha and Glenn Ong (2020), “Assesing the ROK‟s New Southern Policy towards ASEAN”, ISEAS Perspective, no.7/2020, https://www.iseas.edu.sg/wp- content/uploads/pdfs/ISEAS_Perspective_2020_7.pdf.

²¹ Megumi Fujikawa và Kwanwoo Jun (2019), “U.S.- China Trade War Takes Toll on South Korea and Japan,” The Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-china-trade-war-takes-toll-on-south-korea-and-japan- 11567415192.

²² The World and Vietnam Report (2019), “Japan considering expanding the order of export restriction to South Korea”, https://baoquocte.vn/nha-t-ba-n-can-nhac- mo-rong-lenh-han-che-xuat-khau-sang-han-quoc- 97592.html.

²³ The World and Vietnam Report (2019), “Japan considering expanding the order of export restriction to South Korea”, ibid.

²⁴ New Hanoi Newspaper (2019), “Prime Minister attending the First Mekong-ROK Summit”, https://hanoimoi. com.vn/tin-tuc/Doi-ngoai/951453/thu- tuong-du-hoi-nghi-cap-cao-mekong-han-quoc-lan-thu- nhat.

²⁵ Nguyen Huong (2019), “South Korea: Vietnam‟s key partner”, Vietnam Trade and Industry Review, https:// congthuong.vn/han-quoc-doi-tac-quan-trong-hang-dau- cua-viet-nam-128119.html.

²⁶ Korea Custom Service (2019), “Import/Export by Countries”, http://www.customs.go.kr/kcshome/trade/Tra deCountryList.do?layoutMenuNo=21031.

²⁷ ASEAN Focus (2019), “ASEAN in Figure”, Issue 6/2019, https://www.iseas.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/ pdfs/ASEANFocus%20-%20December%202019.pdf.

²⁸ Vietnam News Agency (2019), “Interview with South Korean officials and scholars before the visit to South Korea from November 24-28, 2019 of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc”, https://vnanet.vn/vi/anh/anh-thoi-su- quoc-te-1049/gioi-chuc-va-hoc-gia-han-quoc-tra-loi- phong-van-ttxvn-truoc-chuyen-tham-cua-thu-tuong- nguyen-xuan-phuc-4210942.html.

REFERENCES

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3. The World and Vietnam Report (2019), “Japan considering expanding the order of export restriction to South Korea”, https://bao quocte.vn/nha-t-ba-n-can-nhac-mo-rong-lenh- han-che-xuat-khau-sang-han-quoc-97592.html.

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11. Nguyen Xuan Phuc (2018), “Mekong: The River of cooperation and development”, Online              Newspaper        of     the     Government, http://baochinhphu.vn/Hoi-nghi-Thuong-dinh- GMS-6-va-Hoi-nghi-Cap-cao-CLV-10/Me- Cong-Dong-song-hop-tac-va-phat- trien/332869.vgp.

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13. Embassy of ROK to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (2019), “The Purpose and Overall Direction of the New Asia Initiative”, http://overseas.mofa.go.kr/.

14. Hoang Thi Ha and Glenn Ong (2020), “Assessing the ROK‟s New Southern Policy towards ASEAN”, ISEAS Perspective, no.7/2020, https://www.iseas.edu.sg/wp-content/ uploads/pdfs/ISEAS_Perspective_2020_7.pdf.

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17. Lim Sung Nam (2019), “Korea‟s New Southern Policy: Walk to the border, sail to the island”, The Jakarta Post, https://www.theja kartapost.com/academia/2019/11/15/koreas-new-southern-policy-walk-to-the-border-sail-to- the-island.html.

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21. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (2017), “Press Release by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea following 2017 Mekong-ROK Minister Meeting”.

22. The Korea Herald (2019), “Moon unveils vision for Korea„s cooperation with Mekong region”, http://www.koreaherald. com/view.php?ud=20190905000939.

23. The Presidential Committee on New Southern Policy (2019), “Policy Introduction”, http://www.nsp.go.kr/eng/policy/policy02Page.d o.

24. US Embassy in Seoul (2019), “U.S. & ROK Issue a Joint Factsheet on their Regional Cooperation     Efforts”,    https://kr.usembassy. gov/110219-joint-fact-sheet-by-the-united- states-and-the-republic-of-korea-on-cooperation- between-the-new-southern-policy-and-the-indo- pacific-strategy/.

Sources cited: JOURNAL OF Vietnam Review of Northeast Asian Studies, Vol. 8 – 2020.