Chung, Sang-Ho

Introduction
In the fifth ASEAN+three (ten nations belonging to the Association of South-East Asian Nations plus Korea, Japan and China) meeting held in Brunei in early November 2001, member countries adopted a report entitled “Towards an East Asian Community: Region of Peace, Prosperity and Progress.” This report is the product of a study group organized by 26 scholars from the 13 member nations after the President Kim Dae-Jung had proposed a formation of East Asia Vision Group in 1998.
The Vision Group report recommended, among other things, an establishment of a Free Trade Area and an East Asian Monetary Fund. Its ultimate goal, as stated in the report, is to realize the East Asian Community, which is similar in fashion to the European Union.
This article is written to serve the following three purposes: First, it spells out reasons that such regional arrangement would not be detrimental to multilateral agreements such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. Second, it attempts to explain why Korea can be a good candidate for leading the initiative to creating the Community in the region. Third, despite seeming enthusiasm emanating from the Vision Group report, this article tries to identify challenges ahead for the endeavor toward regional integration.
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