Essay Writing

The role of youth in promoting the ASEAN-Korea relations The year 1991 witnessed the ASEAN-ROK partnership when Republic of Korea was accorded as a full dialogue partner of ASEAN in the 24th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting. From year to year, ASEAN-ROK relations have been strengthened and deepened in all fields. On political and security cooperation front, Republic of Korea has been involving actively in dialogues exchanging views on regional and international issues, contributing to regional peace and stability. On the other hand, the acceding of Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) as well as constructive participation in ASEAN Plus Three (APT), East Asian Summit (EAS), the ASEAN regional forum (ARF) and ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus) has indicated strong commitment of ROK to engagement in political and security agenda with ASEAN. On economic cooperation front, two way trade volume has increased at significant rate after the realization of ASEAN-ROK Free Trade Area (AKFTA). To exemplify, ROK continues to be ASEAN's fifth trading partner while ASEAN was the second largest trading partner of Korea in 2010. Similarly, socio-cultural cooperation has also been broadened. People-to-people interaction among Koreans and people of ASEAN has expanded remarkably. This phenomenon can be evinced by the growing number of tourists and cultural exchange programs, for example, ASEAN Millennium Leaders Exchange Program or ASEAN-Korean Youths' ASIAN CrossCultural Exploration (ACCE) Program. In this regard, youth participation is of uttermost importance to further promote ASEAN-Korea relations in several ways. Basically, youth play an important role in information sharing. In this information technology era, the role and power of media is significant, for it helps raise the awareness and build confidence of all involving parties. The exchange of young media practitioners empowers dialogue and information sharing among them, and youth involvement will be a bridge handling messages to entire society. Moreover, youth are the generations who hold the knowledge and access to information technology; therefore, their participation will be impetus to the flow of information not only in individual country but also across the border. With the great advancement of ICT, especially social networking such as Facebook or Twitter, the exchange of information becomes more convenient and effective, elevating ASEAN-Korea relations to greater level. Involvement of youth in educational and cultural exchanges facilitates the dissemination of information which will produce trickle-down effects for society as a whole. In

other word, information sharing is indispensable to promoting relation and confidence of all stakeholders, and youth are the catalyst for sharing since they better understand each other and own the means to information technologies. Additionally, youth participation facilitates cultural understanding and awareness between Korea and entire ASEAN. Koreas global image has been projected by peaceful cultural expansion as mirrored by Korean Wave. In particular, ASEAN younger generations are increasingly inspired by Korean entertainment wave, and this expansion receives positive response in ASEAN countries. Understanding different norms and cultural diversity of ASEAN members and Korea breeds a collaborative platform where misunderstanding and differences can be ultimately muted, if not totally eliminated. In similar fashion, cultural exposure of both counterparts pushes forward the tourism relation between both sides, concretizing ASEANKorea ties even stronger. Mutual cultural understanding, on the other hand, would underpin trade and investment in the years to come. Youth are generally considered as the innovative and entrepreneurial generation. Owing to the fact that youth engagement creates a mass networking for the future, their participation will cultivate talent pool for future business leadership and innovation. More importantly, educational exchanges, cultural performances and community services conducted by young people help promote interactions and contacts among academia, youth, media practitioners, artists, diplomats and cultural experts, which in turn flourish mutual relations and friendship between ASEAN and Korea. Also, constructive participation of young people in various fields raises the awareness among each other, moving the relations to a higher track. Last but not least, youth play an important role in shaping socio-political relations between ASEAN members and Republic of Korea. From political decision to policy implementation, youth participation and consultation should not be ignored. As Kofi Annan puts, Youth are not only leaders of tomorrow but partners of today. Hence, they are serving as a preliminary force to promote peace and stability both in regional and international arena. With no doubt, youth are the talent pool for future leadership, so their participation in the present time will raise the understanding among future leaders. In this case, ASEAN-Korea relation ties will further develop because young people are the ambassador to carry over this vigorous friendship to the next generation. Educational exchanges and visits of youth representative heighten the reciprocity so that future misunderstanding, differences, distrust, and conflict among ASEAN members and Korea can be managed and prevented, accelerating economic, socio-cultural and

strategic partnership. Young people are impetus for change because they are the core group that has physical, mental and intellectual commitments to fostering peace, harmony, development and prosperity. Furthermore, transnational relations between youth and youth increase interdependence and interconnectedness perceived by ASEAN and Korea. Once the sense of interdependence is embedded in the state-to-state relations, it is highly feasible that war against each other will not be the case. As a result, dialogue, consultation and peaceful conflict resolutions will be the preferable mechanisms rather than the use of force. On top of that, Korea and ASEAN have common value which is to promote democracy and social welfare. Once values are harmonized, relations and cooperation are inaugurated to higher partnership level. In this respect, youth is the leading group who actively cooperates should-to-shoulder to enhance transparency, social welfare and democracy. Youths have greatly extended their activities to better society in each country owing to better education as well as access to electronic means of communication and their transborder interactions. By doing so, young people take lead in shaping future destiny of their country, the region and the world. In conclusion, youth do play a crucial role in promoting the ASEAN-Korea relations in various aspects, ranging from political to socio-cultural cooperation. In the process of elevating ASEAN-Korea relations, youth participation must not be overlooked because their roles contribute significantly to strong collaborative partnership and reciprocal understanding between ASEAN and Korea in several ways: sharing information, facilitating educational and cultural understanding, harmonizing common values, and concretizing socio-political interactions. Youth are the impetus for change and betterment in society. Consequently, through cultural understanding and peaceful norms, it is perfectly clear that youth participation does enhance the ASEAN-Korea cooperation and relation. In international relations, people-to-people contacts, especially those of young generations who are better educated and have access of electronic means of communication, will obviously bolster interdependence and interconnectedness among states and in turn reinforce the vigorous relations of all stakeholders. As ASEAN-Korea relations are evolving rapidly from time to time, youth participation is critical in supporting and pushing forward the strong relation ties established by both sides. Youth are the leaders of tomorrow and their today participation will be the breaking ground for peace, stability and cooperation in the region as well as in the world.