*Image Source: AFP Photo/Roslan Rahman The year 2020 has been an unprecedented year on the global stage. With coronavirus cases reaching almost 100 million causing the deaths of over 2.14 million global inhabitants to date, our 21st century world is suffering from its worst pandemic in 100 years. As a result, we experienced the Great Lockdown in 2020, which is considered the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. In fact, several countries including Malaysia are

* Image Source: Korea Net Since the New Southern Policy (NSP) was launched in November 2017, much attention has been focused on how the NSP brings new impetus for strengthening the bilateral and multilateral layers of ASEAN-ROK (Republic of Korea) relations, viz. the bilateral ties between individual ASEAN member states and South Korea and the links between ROK and ASEAN as a group. However, there is another equally crucial dimension that has been somewhat neglected: the role