South Korea’s Arctic policy: political motivations for 21st century global engagements

ABSTRACT As one of the Arctic Council’s permanent observer states, South Korea has implemented various policies related to the Arctic despite its significant geographical and cultural distance from the Arctic countries. While most literature analysing the country’s active involvement in the region has focused on economic interests, little attention has been dedicated to the political aspect of South Korea’s Arctic policy. In this article, we argue that South Korea’s international influence as a middle power state needs to be recognised, and that the Arctic has served as an arena for the ROK to assert its influence on international issues. With this political intent, South Korea’s policies of globalisation and soft power also served as tools in its middle power diplomacy in the Arctic. We examine this political aim of South Korea’s Arctic interests by chronicling the country’s Arctic policy and middle power diplomacy.