The Evolution of Russian-Korean Relations: External and Internal Factors

Abstract

The Korean Peninsula was in the focus of Russia's attention throughout the twentieth century. Tsar Nicolas II, Lenin, Stalin, Brezhnev, and finally Gorbachev, for various reasons and in different forms, tried to get the upperhand in this East Asian nation. Gorbachev began with attempts to strengthen solidarity with communist comrades in North Korea and ended up forging friendly links with Seoul at the expense of the alliance with Pyongyang. After collapse of the communist regime in Moscow and then disintegration of the USSR, Russia's policies toward Korea (and Asia as a whole) for some time lost their momentum. The new Russian government was too preoccupied with internal problems, and any energy left for diplomacy was devoted to relations with the former parts of the Soviet Union and with the West. It was believed that the future of the democratic, anti-communist Russian state depended on the West for the disarmament process, the procurement of aid, and utilization of models of development. Gradually though, perceptions started to change. Economic interests and political issues were making Moscow more and more active in Asia. By the second half of 1992, a number of important directions emerged in Russian policies in the area, among them cooperation with South Korea, which looked like a bright spot in Russia's interactions with Asian-Pacific nations. South Korean companies, interested in Russia's natural resources and its military and space technology, kept a high profile in the Russian market. Some of them continued to look at opportunities for major investment, and Moscow in turn solicited Korean capital and pressed for resumption of the $3 billion loan