South Korea's ever-closer relations with NATO: intersecting and varying motives of South Korea's Moon Jae-in and Yoon Suk-yeol administrations

Abstract

Driven by both political camps in Seoul, relations between South Korea and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have deepened significantly since their initiation in 2005. While this intensified relationship was shaped to a large extent by geopolitical developments and increasing security concerns, it also reflects the respective prior­ities and motives of the different South Korean administrations. With another change in administration in South Korea looming, it is important to understand these prior­ities, and where and why the different administrations’ motivations driving the coun­try’s relations with NATO intersect and diverge. (author's abstract)