S. Korea, ASEAN open first round of FTA upgrade talks in Seoul

South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations kicked off the first round of official negotiations Monday to upgrade their free trade agreement, which has been in force since 2007, with talks running through Friday in Seoul, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said.

Park Geun-o, head of the ministry's trade agreement policy division, leads the South Korean delegation, while Alpana Roy, director at Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry, heads the ASEAN side.

The two sides agreed to launch the upgrade negotiations at the ASEAN-Korea Summit last October, then finalized a work plan for this year at the first Joint Committee meeting in April, pledging to push the process forward at pace.

The first round covers 13 areas, including digital trade, critical minerals and supply chains. A second Korea-ASEAN FTA Joint Committee session will also convene alongside the talks to review progress across working groups and, where needed, discuss negotiating direction on key issues at the committee level.

Trade between South Korea and ASEAN totaled $204.7 billion last year, making the bloc South Korea's second-largest trading partner after China ($272.8 billion) and accounting for 15.3 percent of the country's total trade.

The government aims to modernize the agreement to reflect the shifting global trade environment, including by incorporating digital trade rules into the Korea-ASEAN FTA framework.

"This first round marks the full launch of the Korea-ASEAN FTA upgrade negotiations," Park said. "We will engage actively to achieve meaningful progress in areas tied to the future competitiveness of Korean businesses, including digital trade, critical minerals and supply chains."