Goals and Objectives of the State Policy of the Republic of Korea in the Arctic

Abstract

The article compares the provisions of normative documents that determine the Arctic policy of Korea and the results of a survey by Korean experts dealing with Arctic issues. The presented study examines the issues of transforming the priorities of the ROK state policy in the Arctic and promising areas of Seoul’s activity in the Arctic region. An analysis of the main regulatory documents that determine the priorities of the Republic of Korea in the Arctic (the Arctic Policy Basic Plan for 2013–2017 and the Arctic Development Basic Plan for 2018–2022) demonstrates the growing importance of economic cooperation in the Arctic as a priority for Korean policy. The results of the expert survey conducted as part of the study demonstrate that the Korean expert community considers environmental protection and response to climate change a paramount for the country’s policy in the Arctic region. According to the study, the experts have chosen the following most important tasks in the Arctic: “responding to climate change and forecasting climate change”; “protection of the marine environment and biological resources”; “conservation of ecosystems”; “the introduction and development of polar scientific research”; “expansion of polar research and monitoring infrastructure”. The survey results indicate that the key direction of the Arctic policy for the Republic of Korea, is the development of international relations within the framework of the Arctic Council, the main subject of which is scientific research in the field of climate and ecology. Thus, despite the priorities formulated in the General Plan for the Development of Arctic Activities for 2018–2022, Arctic experts consider the establishment of international partnerships to be a more important task than the participation of Korean business in Arctic projects and the creation of Arctic infrastructure. Acknowledgements. This article has been supported by the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) (PE19460).