The third summit between South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is still two months away in November, but it is already being promoted in the media. The summit promises to be a major event, with economic relations on top of the agenda. But even as diplomats work on growing that relationship, there is a shadow cast by North Korea that threatens peace and prosperity in the peninsula and in this region.

We raise this point because of economic and security concerns. On the economic front, South Korea is the fifth largest trading partner of the Asean, a regional bloc that includes the Philippines. Bilateral trade between them is more than $152 billion in 2017 and growing rapidly, faster than 22 percent that year from the same period in 2016.

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