D o you remember the books you read, when you were a child? Maybe your parents brought you many famous books with titles such as Cinderella, Hansel und Gretel, and the Three Little Pigs. When your parents gave them to you, your parents expected you to read the books and think about many profound ideas. Among the many books your parents gave you, there was probably a book called, "Les Trois Mousquetaires" (The Three Musketeers, The Trio). The main characters were Aramis, Porthos, and Athos. Together, these three people with D'Artagnan fought Cardinal Richelieu. They defeated this rascal, and thus, they affected on society. 

This book has affected our lives. When you were an elementary school student, you occasionally gathered together with two other students. In that time, we said to ourselves that we are like the Trio. On the other hand, the novel has also affected movies, too. When we translate other countries' movie titles, we usually use the novel's title for the movie's title. The Three Musketeers is friendly with our lives. Even though we do not know the story that well, it is a close part of your life.

Now, we need to construe a new Trio. In a global society, a very grand and huge Trio is appearing on the international community stage. We are calling this Trio, BESETO (Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo). They are leading Asia to an advanced worldwide stage. BESETO means that three countries' (China, Korea, and Japan) have economic ties. The concept was derived from each country's capital city's name.

October 1993 in Tokyo, the mayor of Seoul insisted that the three countries would become the economic center in the international world. Therefore, he believed we need to make the three countries tied as one block.

In fact, their economic power was known and admitted by other countries over long time. However, it was limited only to the economic field. Recently it is affecting other fields, such as international politics, multi-cultural changes, and global societal changes. In these current circumstances, many famous international relations specialists are predicting their bright future.

At present, an official BESETO is not organized among these countries. However, there have been many trials to make a foundation for organizing BESETO.
After the concept of BESETO was declared, the BESETO Theatre Festival has been held among the three countries every year. This year, Uijeongbu's local government in Korea held the festival. Additionally, from 2002, the BESETO Opera Company have circulated performances among the three countries. 

There are many endeavors among each of these countries in the field of sports, too. Since the 2002 FIFA WORLD CUP KOREA AND JAPAN games, the three countries have held BESETO soccer and volleyball competitions. They are making a good place for active communication between each other.

Finally, there is also the BESETO cultural Comparative Festival held for the purpose to understand each country's traditional cultures. From 2003, the BESETO agricultural forum has been active in Eastern Asia.

Among these trials, we especially need to know the cultural field, since these BESETO's trials are more active than the other fields. The BESETO Theatre Festival is a representative example. In 1994, they thought that the world would become a more dramatic inter-cultural circumstance. They predicted that there would be less isolation, more inter-communication and frequent meetings in the future. They insisted that active cultural communication is the correct answer to overcome bad conflicts among these countries, so they established the BESETO Theatre Festival and decided to have a place for communication. Chung-Ang University's theatre troupe from the College of Art has attended the BESETO Theatre Festival in 2004.

Moreover, there have been policies implemented to integrate each country's spaces. A representative example is the BESETO Travel Belt. It is a plan that asks each country to try to tie the countries into one tourist route. They thought that the BESETO Travel Belt would be the best places foreigners would want to tour in the future. Thus, they have planned related policies and propelled negotiations to make it become true. They have constructed integrated images about travel and tour recourses among these three countries. They linked each country's capitals and advertised its plans to the whole world.

Because of the BESETO policy, Seoul chose to officially develop and invest in Gim Po airport as a BESETO stronghold airport. In fact, for a long time ago, economic groups have requested that the airline BESETO belt be part of the national administration for it will contribute to activate East Asian economic business. They want Gim Po airport to become an East Asian short distance shuttle airport. At first, Korea government refused this request, but they understand the future importance of BESETO, and the fact that Korea become a center of BESETO if we plan well and systemically implement our scheme toward it. Therefore, they accepted the proposal and have propelled the project forward to make Gim Po Airport an airline center, and a hub for BESETO.

Because of these circumstances, some finance companies made a BESETO fund. The BESETO Foreign Investment Fund has been formed, so that people can invest and regain profits from the project. They are thinking that it has very high profit rates, but low risk rates. This fund is very famous for people interested in economic investment.

In addition, there are some trials they are investigating together for their original currency. They negotiate integration of their present currencies. They can hold stronger momentary system.

In the future, it will be obvious that the influence of BESETO will become huge toward a worldwide society. They will meet their grand position. Some scholars are expecting that BESETO will take on similar positions as the current EU (European Union) or NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in the international society. However, there are many problems among these three countries, too. They have very strong ethnic spirits. They share historical conflicts between themselves, and their diplomatic relations have been stiff. Nevertheless, it is important to watch its movement carefully. If these three countries will solve these problems that are in front of them, their power will be more grater than present. It is a strong worldwide organization. Therefore, we have to look at the BESETO Trio, China, Korea, and Japan.