By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter




G8 leaders will open a meeting in Scotland on Wednesday for their 31st annual economic summit amid calls from South Korea to expand its membership.
Government officials in Seoul said Tuesday that the exclusive club of world leaders needs to open the door to new members in a way that reflects a rapidly changing global economy.

``If the summit leaders decide to allow other countries to join, we have the intention to request membership, given that the country is the 10th largest economy,’’ Cho Hyun, director general for international economic affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told The Korea Times.

Such calls from South Korea come as the G8 is facing an identity crisis, international relations experts in Seoul said.

``Russia’s membership to the group triggered the identity crisis,’’ Lee Jae-seung, international relations professor of Korea University in Seoul, said in a telephone interview. ``It was a political decision to accept Russia as a member. That’s why China and India are talking about G10 for equal treatment.’’

Russia has the world’s 15th largest economy in terms of gross domestic product.

The summit, which began in France in 1975, was originally designed to discuss economic issues, mainly international monetary policies, between economically developed countries, Lee said.

The first summit was attended by five countries _ the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Japan. It later turned into the Group of Seven with Canada and Italy being invited. Russia became a member in recent years.

But the top economies are expected to be the U.S., China, India, Japan, Britain, France, Germany and South Korea by 2050, experts predict. Current G8 members Italy and Russia will likely not find slots in the top 10.

Under this situation, experts think the membership expansion is very likely in the near future as it would be difficult to knock off incumbent members.

``It’s hard to talk meaningfully about the world economy any more without China being included,’’ the AP quoted Grant Aldonas, an international trade lawyer who was commerce undersecretary in U.S. President George W. Bush’s first term, as saying.

But a government official in Seoul, who requested not to be named, said China is not considered an adequate candidate because it is a communist country. He said all the G8 members currently have open-market democracies.

Lee of Korea University predicted the G8 summit in Russia next year will be a turning point for other countries like South Korea and India to strongly demand the exclusive group expand its membership.

im@koreatimes.co.kr