NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE D uring his high-profile state visit to Washington last week, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol began his speech to the U.S. Congress by quoting part of the opening line of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “A new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Although the “new nation” refers to the United States, the values of liberty and equality apply equally to South Korea. Yoon’s visit underscored his country’s resolve to embrace a new future by building on its 70-year alliance with the United States and working together to promote freedom, peace, and prosperity in east Asia and beyond.
South Korea’s remarkable transformation from a war-torn country to the world’s tenth-largest economy is a testament to the resilience and determination of its people.
Over the past 70 years, South Korea has risen from one of the world’s poorest countries to an economically developed nation with the fourth-largest economy in Asia. Its GDP per capita ($34,998) is close to that of Japan ($39,313) (2021 figures). In addition, South Korea is a world leader in many industries (including semiconductors, automobiles, chemicals, and shipbuilding), and Korean pop culture, known as “Hallyu,” is popular not only in Asia but also in the West.
South Korea’s achievement in democratization is also remarkable. In the decades following 1979, which marked the end of an 18-year military dictatorship, the country quickly transformed into a vibrant democracy with a robust civil society, a free press, and active citizen participation. The country’s journey to democracy was not easy, and it involved the sacrifice and struggle of countless civilians who fought for their rights and freedoms. Today, South Korea is a shining example of what can be achieved through determination, resilience, and an unwavering belief in the power of democracy to improve people’s lives.
Recognizing that economic prosperity alone is not enough, South Korea is committed to supporting human rights and democracy around the world. In his speech to Congress, President Yoon reiterated his determination to promote and support human rights in North Korea. He also vowed to continue supporting Ukraine against Russian invasion. Before embarking on his trip to Washington, Yoon rightly stated that the sovereignty of Taiwan is a “global issue” of equal importance to the North Korean issue. Yoon’s remarks are indicative of the pride and confidence of the South Korean people and their motivation to raise the banner of freedom and democracy on the world stage.
In March, President Biden and President Yoon issued a joint statement announcing that South Korea would host the Third Summit for Democracy, with the goal of making the country a “global hub” that contributes to global freedom, peace, and prosperity.
It has not been easy at all for South Korea to move in this direction and to achieve so much. Every step it takes touches the nerve of China, North Korea, and Russia — three nuclear powers that are imposing themselves on South Korea. More than at any time in recent history, the specter of a nuclear exchange hangs over humanity. South Korea depends on the U.S. as its main security ally against a de facto nuclear North Korea, as well as on its main enabler, China, which in recent years has become increasingly aggressive and coercive toward its democratic neighbors, including South Korea. Economically, however, South Korea relies on China as its largest trade partner.
Over the past two decades, many countries have tried to follow the formula of “security dependence on the United States” and “economic dependence on China,” struggling to maneuver between these two superpowers. But as China has become more proactive in using its economic power to bend the world to its will, the formula has become increasingly untenable. The Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula are the world’s most dangerous flashpoints, and the eruption of either could plunge the entire world into economic and humanitarian disaster. Even more frightening, the two hot spots are so inextricably linked that the eruption of one would almost certainly trigger the eruption of the other. For this reason alone, getting ahead of the risk curve in East Asia is not only necessary, it is imperative.
Keeping South Korea’s economy strong and secure, in addition to strengthening its military alliances, is one of the best strategies for countering the power plays of Beijing, Moscow, and Pyongyang. History teaches us that while military power can outlast economic power for a long time, military power ultimately depends on having a thriving economic base.
It is abundantly clear that several economic factors — primarily Europe’s overdependence on Russian oil, gas, and grain; the economic vulnerability of the entire democratic world in the face of close and unprincipled trade relations with China; and the growing friendship between America’s two greatest military and strategic adversaries — coalesced to embolden Russian president Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine with alarming audacity.
With recognition that economic security is inseparable from national security, President Yoon has sought to strengthen South Korea’s alliances with the U.S., Japan, and other democratic countries to counter China’s economic coercion; to establish mechanisms for economic security cooperation among these democratic nations, including but not limited to joint efforts to strengthen the resilience of supply chains and to develop and safeguard high technology; to design and implement concrete measures to help build alternative economic power centers in East Asia and around the world; and to encourage and support the liberalization and democratization of autocratic countries and push for greater liberalism and a strengthened rules-based order in the region.
These measures demonstrate South Korea’s leadership and vision for a safer, freer, and more prosperous world based on the principles of democracy and free markets.
Jianli Yang is the founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China and the author of For Us, the Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth. Yonghun Kim, a Korean American, is a senior adviser at the Center for Civic Culture Studies.