THE ROH ADMINISTRATION’S PEACE AND PROSPERITY POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

The new South Korean President, Roh Moo-hyun, declared in his inauguration speech on February 25, 2003 that “the Age of Northeast Asia is fast approaching.” The Korean peninsula has to be reborn as a gateway to peace that connects the Eurasian landmass with the Pacific, and leads to “The Age of Northeast Asia in the 21st century,” as long predicted by renowned scholars. These predictions are now coming true. Northeast Asia, as a region covering the Korean states, Japan, Mongolia, northeastern parts of China and the Russian Far East, can indeed become an important sub-region of East Asia, Asia-Pacific and Eurasia. Northeast Asia partly overlaps the concept of North Pacific, the latter including also parts of the United States (Alaska) and Canada (British Columbia). Northern Eurasia, connecting Northeast Asia with northern Europe through Russia, was in fact a political and economic unit from 1809 until 1917 under Imperial Russia, which extended from the Finnish Aland Islands, close to the Swedish eastern coast, across to the Pacific Ocean, and until 1867 even to Alaska. In the new post-Cold War international situation, northern Eurasia could again become a connecting factor between Northeast Asia/the North Pacific and Europe/the EU through the vast Eurasian Land Bridge. The 320 million people of Northeast Asia and the huge natural resources and complementarities of the Northeast Asian economies could form a realistic basis for a new regional architecture in Northeast Asia, with logistical and other connections towards Eurasia, North America and the South Pacific. It has all the potential to develop into a new major pole or power center in the developing multipolar/multi-centered world order. The Korean peninsula is in a key position in this development. Increasing regional cooperation in Northeast Asia could lessen the prevailing tensions in the region and facilitate the development toward an eventual reunification of Korea, in one form or another, even in the foreseeable future. The growing relationship between Northeast Asia and Europe, and particularly the European Union, called in this article “the Eurasian Dimension,” could become an important catalyst for the future normalization of inter-Korean relations.

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