What role does South Korea play as a regional actor in the Myanmar coup?
- The Korea Times
- Jun 17, 2025
- 3 min read
The military coup shattered democratic order as it sent shockwaves through the entirety of Southeast Asia’s political landscape. It is heartbreaking witnessing the bloody suppression of many in Myanmar.
The military coup of February 2021 in Myanmar that ousted the elected democratic government resulted in public armed resistance against the junta. The issue sparked problems about Human Rights and International Condemnation. It created ripples of impacts that internally affected South Korea by reducing regional stability and straining economic ties.
South Korea strongly condemns the military coup and supports the restoration of democratic government. On 12 March 2021, the South Korean government discontinued cooperating with the Myanmar military. This is a specific and proactive measure, since previously South Korea had provided advanced defense and security maintenance education for Myanmar’s military and police.
South Korea has placed a ban on the exporting of supplies that may encourage protests, such as tear gas and projectiles. These actions were done also to discourage protests and maintain peace within the country. Economic sanctions were also imposed, and humanitarian aid was closely monitored. South Korea provided approximately 90 million dollars through the Official Development Assistance (ODA), a category used by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to measure foreign aid.
Currently, South Korea has plans to carry out a code of conduct with Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. This contains laws that limit foreign military bases and ban provocative actions. Limiting foreign military bases aims to reduce less influence of foreign manipulation in internal conflict resolutions.
A layer of security is embedded to ensure countries abide by these laws. Malaysia has proposed an action named “PDD” (Protect Defend Deter). This plan works with special envoys to create a political backlash when laws have been broken.
Whilst discussions within the above countries occur, several other nations have other plans. The European Union (EU), Cambodia, New Zealand, Brunei, India, Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Japan, Timor-Leste, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Laos, and the GULF have a code of conduct for third-party influence and humanitarian aid and peer accountability. Coupled with the Monetary Review Panel, it serves as an early warning system for countries to report threats. It comprises 4 steps: Risk scanning, prioritisation, shared assessment and monitoring, which includes follow-ups.
Along with these plans, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, Myanmar, Thailand, Australia, the EU, New Zealand, India, and Timor Leste have another measure: the ASEAN Court of Justice (ACOJ). Each member state will send a representative to join the AMM representative body. This body serves to issue warnings, decide if a breach has been made and sends parties to ACOJ.
A warning system will be set up to issue warnings and give 1 month to the stakeholders to amend and respond. ACOJ is established by judges, and after assessment, stakeholders will receive consequences based on tiers of severity. For Tier 1, there will be advice and aid given. Tier 2, consequences such as suspension from future agreements.
South Korea believes that intervention would be more effective in directly addressing the resolution. In the long term, the conflict would be resolved more quickly. She also recognises the efforts of the measures proposed by other countries. However, they are a largely non-interventionist framework and would be less effective. Hence, South Korea will not partake in the other solutions proposed.
Further permanent progress in AMM has yet to be seen. South Korea overall takes a neutral stance, prioritising its sovereignty and relationships with other countries by not escalating tensions and best efficiency of resolving the best possible solution.
South Korea calls on AMM to take stronger actions in creating a proposal for ASEAN to develop its role as a third-party in global conflict resolution and peace processes.
Written by Faith Child, Toh Jia Ying, and Tan Hern Ern Maitri
Bibliography
Joung-Jun, Lee, Bak Cheon-su, Jang Un-ho, Kim Ho-woog, and Chung Un-Ki . “South Korea’s Response to the Myanmar Military Coup in 2021.”
Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government 27, no. 3 (April 2, 2021).
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