After 35 years since the establishment of relations, the ASEAN-Korea economic and trade relationship has been continuously developed and promoted, becoming an irreplaceable economic link in the region.

Since the establishment of the sectoral relations in November 1989, ASEAN and the Republic of Korea have affirmed their strong and progressive partnership through the continuous upgrading of their relations. This is clearly demonstrated in the continuous promotion of exchanges, cooperation and upgrading of discussions in many areas, especially in the economic and trade fields. The economic and trade relations between ASEAN and Korea witnessed the first major turning point on 13 May 2005 when ASEAN and the Korea signed the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (AKFTA), thereby creating a precedent for the two sides to negotiate and sign agreements on free trade in goods, trade and investment with the aim of establishing the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Area. Following that, the ASEAN-Korea Dispute Settlement Mechanism Agreement, the ASEAN-Korea Trade in Goods Agreement, the ASEAN-Korea Trade in Services Agreement and the ASEAN-Korea Investment Agreement were successively signed from 2005 to 2009, affirming the importance of economic and trade cooperation between ASEAN and Korea. ASEAN members and Korea have continuously promoted discussions and cooperation on the implementation and development of the AKFTA, with the result that Protocols 1, 2 and 3 amending the ASEAN-Korea Trade in Goods Agreement (AKTIGA) have been continuously agreed upon and approved by the countries.

After many years of implementing the FTA, as of 2024, Korea is currently ASEAN's 5th largest trading partner, with two-way trade turnover reaching 196.64 billion USD and is the 6th largest FDI investor in ASEAN, reaching 11 billion USD in 2023. Viet Nam is an ASEAN member that also makes good use of the AKFTA when Korea is continuously one of the leading markets for importing goods from Viet Nam with the highest rate of FTA preferential use. In 2023, the Korean market has a preferential C/O usage rate of 52.1%, with the export turnover of goods with C/O to Korea reaching 12.2 billion USD. The group of export products to Korea with the best FTA preferential utilization rate is seafood (96.32%), followed by agricultural products such as vegetables, coffee, all of which have very high preferential C/O utilization rates, reaching 91.18% and 94.54%, respectively. In addition, wood and wood products have a utilization rate of 73.76%); footwear and textile exports have a rate of nearly 100%.

At the 25th ASEAN-Korea Summit, all parties have agreed to adopt the Joint Statement establishing the ASEAN-Korea Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP), in which the leaders of ASEAN and Korea emphasized that the establishment of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership demonstrates the high and close level of the relationship as well as the positive results of the extensive cooperation between ASEAN and Korea. Regarding economic cooperation, the parties are also actively discussing the possibility of upgrading the AKFTA through a coordinated review of the Agreement, focusing on assessing the implementation of the AKFTA in member countries and making comments and recommendations on the contents/areas that can be considered for upgrading and supplementing the AKFTA. These are highly anticipated and extremely positive cooperative efforts, promoting ASEAN-Korea economic cooperation to a new level of depth, and mutual support and together becoming an indispensable link in the regional economy and supply chain.