South Korea’s National Role Conceptions in its Foreign Policy Towards European Countries

Abstract: South Korea’s leaders are constantly representing Korea around the world and building new diplomatic relationships to enhance its influence internationally. Nowadays the country’s ambitions for diplomacy reach further away from neighbouring countries and into distant regions. This thesis is interested in the relationship between South Korea and European countries, focusing on the way that Korea chooses to present itself to them. In order to find out what national role conceptions South Korea takes on in its communication with Europe, the thesis conducts content analysis on sources from three levels of government – the president, the Foreign Ministry and the embassies. It is known that the relationship between Korea and Europe is largely economy oriented, however the thesis found that Korea also identifies itself in terms of defence and territorial issues, cultural issues as well as shared values. As to the levels of government, it was found that the president is more focused on defence/territorial issues, while the Foreign Ministry emphasizes economic cooperation and embassies identify more with the cultural powerhouse role conception. It was also found that Korea presents itself a developer and cultural powerhouse to Eastern European countries, but as a regional protector to Western European countries.