The rapprochement between Korea and the Soviet Union in the late 1980s unveiled the Soviet Union to Koreans for the first time in decades. In fact, trade between the two countries grew quickly, initiated by Korean businessmen who were also very active in searching for investment opportunities in the Soviet Union. Furthermore, in January 1991, Korea pledged to provide the Soviet Union with a US$3 billion economic cooperation fund over a three-year period.
However, the disintegration of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, as well as political instabilities and economic deterioration of the Russian economy that followed, constituted very serious obstacles to the further development of the economic cooperation between Korea and Russia. In addition, the fact that Russia was unable to service Korean loans made the Korean public very skeptical as to whether economic cooperation with Russia was in Korea's best interest.
How serious is the recent slowdown in Korea-Russian economic cooperation; First, this paper will try to answer this question by reviewing the evolution of economic ties between the two countries, concentrating on their bilateral trade and direct investments. Furthermore, this paper will attempt to find the causes of the recent malaise in bilateral economic cooperation by analyzing the obstacles to it. In the last section of this paper, both long-term possibilities and short-term prospects for Korea-Russian economic cooperation will be discussed.

Contents

I. Introduction

II. Current Status of Korea-Russian Economic Cooperation
Trade
Investments
Science and Technology Cooperation
Other Areas of Economic Cooperation

III. Obstacles to Korea-Russian Economic Cooperation

IV. Possibilities and Prospects for Korea-Russian Economic Cooperation
Long-term Possibilities for Korea-Russian Economic Cooperation
Short-term Prospects for Korea-Russian Economic Cooperation

V. Conclusion

References