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Even if the ROW participants do not perceive ICANN issues to be directly related to their
interests, they do understand that many of the decisions made at ICANN will eventually
influence all the stakeholders of Internet. Hence, by the time the stakeholders in ROW
countries finally develop their interests in these areas, many of the important decisions
will already have been made for them by the US and European participants. But when the
society does not have strong and immediate social or national interests in the issues dealt
with at ICANN, it is difficult for the society’s participation to be urgent or genuine, even
if it recognizes that the decisions made at ICANN will later influence the society.
IV. South Korea: A Case Study
In this section, we go into more detail about the problems confronting ROW
participation in ICANN by analyzing a specific institutional context: South Korea.
1. Stakes and Stakeholders in Korea
In Korea, the existence of material interests in relation to ICANN issues tends to
be greater than in many other ROW countries. The development of digital technology is
quite advanced and the spread of the Internet is extensive. In Korea, there are several
groups with an interest in participation, such as the country code TLD manager, KRNIC;
gTLD registrar businesses; and to a lesser degree non-commercial and governmental
actors. Korea has about 10 ICANN-accredited registrars. Local registrars for the ccTLD
also have some business interests in ICANN policy-making although they do not see
themselves directly influenced by it. Korea has also developed a steady, but individual-
based participation in the Non-commercial Users Constituency (NCUC), as the civil
society in Korea has been interested in social and cultural issues that affect Internet users.
The Korean government has also participated more regularly in GAC compared to
other ROW countries. But the Korean government tends to oppose private ordering or
self-regulation, an attitude that conflicts with the ICANN regime. At the ITU Marrakesh
meeting in 2002, the South Korean government suggested that the current activities of
Convention