South Korea's Indo-Pacific Strategy, formally titled the Strategy for a Free, Peaceful, and Prosperous Indo-Pacific Region, was unveiled by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration in December 2022, with a fuller document released in late 2022 and elaborated through 2023. It marked the ROK's first comprehensive regional strategy extending beyond the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, signalling a shift from the previous Moon administration's more cautious "New Southern Policy" framing.
The strategy is built around three core principles — inclusiveness, trust, and reciprocity — and nine lines of effort spanning norms and rules, rule of law and human rights, non-proliferation and counter-terrorism, maritime security, economic security, science and technology, climate and energy, development cooperation, and people-to-people exchange.
Key features include:
- Explicit alignment with the concept of a "free and open Indo-Pacific," language shared with the United States, Japan, Australia, and ASEAN partners.
- Emphasis on the rules-based international order, freedom of navigation, and opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo — wording widely read as a hedge against Chinese assertiveness, though China is not named as an adversary.
- A dedicated Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative (KASI), launched alongside the strategy, to deepen ties with Southeast Asia.
- Commitments to expand cooperation with Pacific Island countries, India, and European Indo-Pacific actors.
The strategy complemented Seoul's broader recalibration under Yoon, including rapprochement with Tokyo, fuller participation in the trilateral US-Japan-ROK framework consolidated at the Camp David summit in August 2023, and engagement with minilaterals such as the Quad working groups (though the ROK is not a Quad member). It also dovetails with Seoul's "Global Pivotal State" branding.
Critics, particularly from the opposition Democratic Party, have argued the strategy tilts the ROK too far toward Washington and risks economic retaliation from Beijing, the ROK's largest trading partner. The durability of the strategy beyond the Yoon government remains an open question.
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In December 2022, the Yoon Suk-yeol government released South Korea's Indo-Pacific Strategy, accompanied by the Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative (KASI).