JAKARTA (Yonhap) -- The Southeast Asian nations hope to bring their strategic partnership with South Korea to a new level as Seoul is set to open a diplomatic mission dedicated to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, a senior ASEAN official said Tuesday.
Korea will soon become the third non-ASEAN nation to name an ambassador to the 10-member regional bloc and launch the permanent mission next month to redouble engagement on a wide range of issues such as trade, regional security, disaster management and human rights.
"With the Republic of Korea set to establish its diplomatic mission to ASEAN, the next step for the two sides is to further diversify a bilateral relationship," said I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, the director-general for ASEAN Cooperation.
"We hope to deeply engage with the Republic of Korea and develop the bilateral relationship in to a more active one," Puja told a group of Korean journalists, referring to South Korea by its official name.
ASEAN is South Korea's second-largest trade partner after China, and the second-largest investment destination after the European Union. The region is also an important source of energy and other resources for South Korea, and sits on key maritime routes that the country uses to bring foreign resources home.
Two-way trade between South Korea and ASEAN stood at US$125 billion last year, and the two sides have already laid out a goal to increase bilateral trade to $150 billion by 2015.
A free trade agreement between Korea and ASEAN -- comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- took effect in 2007.
"The Korean mission to ASEAN is expected to enhance such a very cooperative relationship and help explore cooperation and joint projects in areas such as culture, education and people-to-people exchanges," Puja said.
Puja also expected the Korean mission to Asia to "widen the scope of our engagement with the Republic of Korea in an active effort to advance shared objectives and help set the future direction of the bilateral relationship."