South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s visit to the United Arab Emirates this week shows the Asian nation’s deepening cooperation with the Gulf country, from buying its oil to building the Arabian Peninsula’s first nuclear power plant and potentially backing it in war.
The defence pact Seoul reportedly struck with Abu Dhabi, decried as a secret deal by opponents in South Korea, further leverages a military arrangement that already has seen South Korean special forces help train the Emirati military. A former South Korean defense minister has downplayed the chance of entering a conflict alongside the UAE as a “low risk.”
But Shiite rebels in Yemen, who the UAE is battling as part of a Saudi-led coalition, say they have already tried to target the under-construction Barakah nuclear power plant with a cruise missile. Meanwhile, hundreds of North Korean laborers are believed to still work in the UAE, even as the country says it stopped issuing new visas. The foreign workers offer a cash stream to Pyongyang as it seeks to evade mounting sanctions over its nuclear program.
“When we think about different kinds of shifting geopolitical games, it gets a little bit out of control,” said June Park, a research fellow at the Northeast Asia Center at Seoul National University. “Even if this presidency is not the one that signed the military deal, I think it still says something.”
President Moon arrived in Abu Dhabi yesterday, and was greeted by UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei. South Korea, a major oil and natural gas importer, relies heavily on fossil fuels from the Persian Gulf. The UAE has represented about 10 per cent of that market, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Moon’s meetings thus far have been held behind closed doors. Responding in writing to questions posed by the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency, the South Korean leader said the visit would “boost friendship and cooperation between Korea and the UAE amidst volatile international situations.”
Among the biggest areas of cooperation is the Barakah nuclear power plant, Seoul’s first attempt to build an atomic reactor abroad.
The first of its four reactors, being built in the UAE’s western deserts near the Saudi border, is scheduled to come online this year, making it the first nuclear power plant on the Arabian Peninsula.
“The Barakah nuclear power plant is not simply a mega construction project worth $18.6 billion,” Moon wrote. “The fact that the UAE put confidence in Korea, which had no experience in constructing overseas nuclear power plants, and signed a contract with us to build one in Barakah was possible only because there was deep trust between our two countries.”
Missing from Moon’s comments was any mention of the defense pact reportedly signed by the administration of his predecessor, lee Myung-bak, who was just arrested over a range of corruption allegations. Former Defence Minister Kim Tae-young told the JoongAng Ilbo daily newspaper in January that the deal guarantees the Korean military’s automatic intervention in what was described as “an emergency” in the UAE.