Korea-Mongolia Economic Relations: How Can They Be Reinforced?

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Mongolia in 1990, the two countries have promoted cooperation in various areas including politics, economy, society, and culture, and have even made impressive strides in several fields. Nonetheless, compared to other areas of cooperation, progress in economic cooperation between the two countries has been relatively slow. This is due to the fact that Mongolia is still viewed by Korea as a landlocked country with a small domestic market. However, since the recent surge of the economic and political importance of the Eurasian continent, the strategic value of Mongolia has grown exponentially for Korea. Mongolia is not only one of the world’s top ten countries with the most mineral resources, not to mention an agriculture and livestock sector that holds high potential, but also lies geographically in the junction connecting Europe and Asia. In addition to that, Mongolia is strategically located with direct access to China and Russia, two of the largest emerging markets. In this context, the strategic partnership with Mongolia from the Korean perspective is important for a number of reasons. Not only can Mongolia provide food and mineral resource security to Korea, but it can also act as a logistical bridgehead for Korea to make inroads into the Northern regions in the future. This is why the Park Geun-hye administration has chosen Mongolia as one of Korea’s strategic partners in establishing Eurasian transport logistics, energy resources, and a trade network, goals pursed by the Eurasia Initiative. In this context, the purpose of this article is to review Korea-Mongolia economic relations for the past 26 years and to seek measures to reinforce economic cooperation between the two countries.