ABSTRACT
This chapter is an account of South Korea’s (Korea hereafter) approach to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Though not directly a part of any designated BRI project, Korea has shown a keen interest since its announcement. Having established a strong economic relations with China over the last decades, the initiative was seen as a new economic opportunity. In particular, Seoul viewed BRI as complementing its own efforts to integrate the Korean Peninsula to Eurasia through multi-modal transport and industrial linkages. Successive Korean governments have also seen BRI as an opportunity to induce reform and opening up of North Korea. However, influenced by the growing negative narrative of BRI and the intensification of the US-China strategic competition pushed Korea to undertake a cautious approach to BRI.
