President Park Geun-hye’s attendance at China’s much-trumpeted military parade last week underscored both increasingly tricky diplomatic challenges facing South Korea, and the potential of its middle-power diplomacy to seek a delicate balance between the U.S. and China. 

Park’s trip to Beijing from Sept. 2-4 came amid escalating concerns that it could further reinforce the growing impression that Seoul is tilting too much toward Beijing at the expense of its traditional security alliance with Washington.

But such concerns have been muted, to a certain extent, by the emerging optimism about Seoul’s trust-based diplomacy toward Washington and Beijing, which has helped boost the public support for Park above the 50 percent mark.

Before Park’s trip to Beijing, Seoul tried to allay Washington’s concerns by announcing her visit to the U.S. -- slated for next month -- earlier than it did for her plan to visit China, and by convincing its ally of its intent to win Beijing’s agreement on a trilateral summit between Korea, China, and Japan that has not been held since May 2012.

Seoul also minimized Tokyo’s opposition to her attendance at the Chinese military event by swallowing its frustration at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II that fell short of Koreans’ expectations.

Striving to turn the complicated geopolitics to its benefit, Seoul pushed ahead with her high-stakes visit to Beijing, which is evaluated here largely as having brought South Korea’s evolving strategic partnership with China to a new level.

Seoul’s pursuit of a strategically optimal position amid the intensifying Sino-U.S. competition can be called “dolphin diplomacy.”

Whales, with their large size, have the ability to create big waves by jumping into the water. They, for this reason, are likened to major powers in international relations. Sharks, fierce predators of the sea, are a metaphor for nations that threaten the international order. Prawns, always anxious about whales and sharks, are compared to small powers.

However, none of these three metaphors well reflects the status of South Korea on the international stage. Korea, as a middle power capable of making certain contributions to the international community, is likened to dolphins, known to pursue a social way of life and to seek cooperation among themselves.

South Korea’s “dolphin diplomacy” is being exerted this week once again as it hosts an international high-level security forum, entitled the 2015 Seoul Defense Dialogue, which began its three-day run on Wednesday.

First held in 2012, the SDD is a regional dialogue platform, which invites vice defense ministers and security experts to help foster multilateral trust and cooperation in Northeast Asia.

The scale of the event has been expanded, with the attendance of vice defense ministers from 33 nations and four international organizations, along with more than 300 experts. The agenda of the dialogue shows that the scope of the discussion has also been widening from issues limited to the Korean Peninsula to the ones with global relevance.

Korea’s capability of military diplomacy will also get a boost from this year’s SDD. A meeting on the sidelines of the dialogue among the vice ministers of MIKTA member states -- Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey and Australia -- represented a new attempt at defense cooperation among middle-power nations.

The SDD meeting seeks to promote global cooperation as well. The participation of the EU, NATO, OSCE and the U.N. in this year’s event highlights the SDD’s solidarity with international organizations. In addition, the meeting is intended to objectify South Korea’s own problems such as Pyongyang’s nuclear development.

For these reasons, I hope the SDD will play a central role in Korea’s “dolphin diplomacy,” signified by the image of an intelligent and friendly dolphin, where Seoul works to promote the benefit of the international community and its members.

I look forward to a new type of Korean diplomacy, where the SDD provides a new common platform for multilateral security dialogues, enabling the sharing of various ideas for concerted action on security issues facing the international community.


By Hwang Jae-ho


Hwang Jae-ho is a professor of International Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, and has played an advisory role in hosting the SDD since 2012. He organized the Experts’ Assessment Meeting as part of this year’s SDD. -- Ed.