The Present Situation And Legal Measures Of South Korea's Participation In Northeast Asia Regional Economic Cooperation

The conception of Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation in the geography refers to the Northeast Asia area, which is composed of Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia and China's six province and two cities (Northeast three provinces, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shandong and Beijing, Tianjin), Russia's Far East and the Siberia area. These countries have their own superiorities and strong points, and their industrial vertical divisions of labor are very prominent and strongly complementary, so the potential of this cooperation is huge. Along with the conclusion of The Cold war, tense situation in Northeast Asia had already relaxed, and the political resistance has been substituted by developing internal economy. At the same time to the economic development of any country, it was impossible to close the "gate" to the others, so the cooperation becomes various countries' common request. The economic development of South Korea was very rapid in recent years. For its own economic development needs and with the consideration on global development, South Korea has made certain progress in positively participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation. But there are still certain barriers and the difficulty in South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation. This article is attempted to analyze the present situation and the barriers in South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation, and forwards is attempted to propose some constructive measures for the well of South Korea from the legal angle .This article is divided into three chapters.The first chapter mainly elaborated the background, the present situation and center construction conception of South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation. The economic development of South Korea was rapid in recent years, the backgrounds of South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation positively are mainly: for the own economic development of South Korea as well as to the adaptation of various changes of present worldwide politics and economic situation, and to realize safety of both inside and outside of country. The result of South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation is by the time very outstanding, which reflects in: participating in the international division of labor cooperation positively and the optimization of the industrial structure; maintaining the balance of national territory development ; advancing the development of the West coast; advancing positively the reconciliation between the North and South Korea; promoting the stability of Korean Peninsula; strengthening economic and political relationships with China and so on. In 2003, faced with new changes in politics and economic situation of the Northeast Asia, South Korea proposed strategic concepts on constructing the Northeast Asia regional economic center. And the reason that the South Korean Government devised the Northeast Asia economic center was to guarantee sustainable development of the South Korean economy, which was kind of strategic selection. In order to realize this conception, the South Korean Government believed that it was necessary to relax the nervous state of bilateral relationships between North and South Korea in the Korea Peninsula, and to establish the Northeast Asia cooperation system. Although there are no formulations on plans of the implementation of progress until now, discusses on the plans for the Northeast Asia economic center construction can still be primarily divided into three parts: namely Northeast Asia logistics center conception, Northeast Asia financial center conception and Northeast Asia enterprise center conception.The second chapter mainly elaborated the barriers faced by South Korea in participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation, and these barriers can be induced into three aspects: First is its own factor, and this factor will in a certain degree affect the progress of South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation, which can be figured by the influence of domestic politics struggle in South Korea. The result of South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation is decided by the conformity of South Korean domestic politics strength and the promotion of national centripetal force. But the South Korean domestic politics inevitably has certain problems, simultaneously the starting time of South Korea's this policy is kind of late, so South Korea has to face competitions from other country and other local such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Secondly, the political factor will also affect South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation, and these political factors mainly include conflicts and gambling between South Korea and North Korea, between South Korea and Japanese, and between South Korea and USA. Especially North Korea and South Korea, be in the same peninsula country, the unstable relations between the two countries will divert the center and the advancement of South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation. Finally, there are many questions existing in the Northeast Asia area, such as unbalanced economic structure, trade frictions among the countries and so on. Take South Korea and Japan as the example, there always has been trade friction and conflicts between both sides, which also became one of factors that affect South Korea from participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation.The third chapter mainly proposes the legal perfect measure for South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation. The author analyzes the present situation and the existing chief obstacle in South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation as a foundation, and forwards author attempts to propose four legal measures to better promote the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation, which includes: firstly, to sign bilateral treaty or the multilateral treaties so as to solve the specific problem either in politics, the economy, the military or the social domain; to relax the political tense situation, and to strengthen relations between nations and reduce the contradiction and the conflicts among them, particularly conflicts and contradictions between North Korea and South Korea, solving these problems is not only benefit to South Korea's national security but also simultaneously will better promote the progress of South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation. Secondly, to play a positive role in the APEC organization and APEC is the most influential economic cooperation official forum in Asia and Pacific area. Playing a positive role in APEC will help South Korea expand its local influence in this area, establish good relations with the regional countries and local, and promote economical exchanges and the cooperation between the Northeast Asia area countries. All these will realizes the cooperation and the development of South Korea's participating in the Northeast Asia regional economies well. Thirdly, to solve the trade conflicts under the WTO frame. South Korea is a formal member of the WTO organization and WTO provides its members a very good solution frame for trade conflicts. South Korea once used the WTO dispute settlement mechanism in the history to solve the trade conflicts.This is advantageous to smooth solution of the trade conflicts and contradictions. Because the degree of dependency on the foreign countries is high for the economy of South Korea, the potential of economic growth is weak, the foreign economical stamina is insufficient, and finally, because South Korea faces the insufficient domestic demand and the weak economic growth questions and so on many questions, the South Korean Government should advance bilateral FTA positively, to promote the bilateral free trade progress. South Korea should advance its FTA strategy positively and sign bilateral FTA with Northeast Asia region countries. South Korea also should take the signature of free trade agreements with multi-countries and establishment of free-trade zone as important means to integrate into the world market and speed up the economic development and to maintain its national interest, so that South Korea can better participate in the Northeast Asia regional economic cooperation.