ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Korea needs to have a policy commensurate withits changing status and profile in order to contribute in any meaningful way to the fruition of East Asian regionalism. However, the rise of China, coupled with Korea’s economic setback, undermined its ability to influence regional events – either in Northeast or in Southeast Asia. Korea’s growing international profile, coupled with an apparent decline in the US and Japanese presence in East Asian affairs, propelled it to pursue a more independent and autonomous set of interests at regional level. However, simply from an economic perspective, Korea’s economic development was regarded as being at the required level for OECD membership and thus capable of managing globalisation. The importance of regionalisation to the social and economic well-being of East Asian states was further reinforced through their collective negative experiences with the IMF and World Bank.
