ABSTRACT
“Human security” is a new concept in South Korea’s diplomacy. Unlike traditional middle powers that adopted human security in the mid-1990s, South Korea made little reference to human security in its official documents. However, human security issues form a part of the peace pillar of the New Southern Policy (NSP) that seeks to build a “people-centered community of peace and prosperity”. Human security issues were further embraced in the NSP Plus that was announced in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak in November 2020. Using the role theory framework of foreign policy analysis, this chapter argues that this change stems from the changes in South Korean policymakers’ self-expectations and the expectation of the US toward Seoul’s national role conception. Yet, the NSP has eschewed soft security issues, such as health and environment, in favor of increasing arms sales as part of Seoul’s maintenance of “strategic ambiguity” on sensitive issues confronting the region. The NSP’s promotion of defense exports has also raised questions on the policy coherence of South Korea’s activism for human security. It is recommended that South Korea takes a more balanced and proactive stance in broader human security components, such as political security in the ASEAN countries. To truly realize human security in the NSP countries, South Korea should revise its push for defense exports to the region and consider expanding the role of non-governmental organizations—which has been limited thus far—in the implementation of the NSP.
