The State Duma lower house of Russia’s parliament on Friday ratified an agreement between Russia and South Korea on the simplification of the procedure of issuing visas for mutual short-term visits. The agreement was signed in Moscow on September 29, 2008.
It concerns visas that are issued within 180 days for the “entry, transit, exit and stay in the territory of the other side for a term of up to 90 days for citizens of Russia and South Korea who are holders of valid foreign passports.” This document also envisages the possibility of issuing multiple visas for a term from 1 to 5 years for citizens of both countries.
Persons falling under the effect of this agreement are members of official delegations, businesspeople, journalists, scientists, culture and education workers, tourists, as well as participants in international sports events and programmes of exchanges between twinned cities. The new rules are also applied to close relatives of persons who are legally staying in the territory of the sides’ states.
Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov who presented this document to the parliamentarians noted that the agreement “is designed to strengthen the legal and contractual framework of Russian-South Korean relations in the sphere of the regime of mutual visits of citizens, as well as ensure the creation of maximally favourable conditions for the intensification of exchanges within the framework of the two countries’ state power bodies, representatives of the business community and ordinary citizens.” He said that the ratification of the agreement “fully meets the Russian interests, and its fulfilment will not entail additional federal budget spending.”
South Korea had been seeking to trade with the Soviet Union even before Gorbachev came to power. Gorbachev desired foreign capital and high technology, as well as Seoul’s help in alleviating the Soviet economic crisis through direct investment, joint ventures, and trade. As early as May 1979, South Korea signed an agreement obtaining Finnish assistance in exporting to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
In the 1980s, South Korean President Roh Tae Woo’s Nordpolitik and Mikhail Gorbachev’s “New Thinking” were both attempts to reverse their nations’ recent histories. Gorbachev had signalled Soviet interest in improving relations with all countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including South Korea, as explained in his July 1986 Vladivostok and August 1988 Krasnoyarsk speeches.
The natural resources Seoul increasingly needed – oil, metals, timber, and fish–are abundant in the Soviet Far East. Trade with the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China would also alleviate South Korea’s apprehension over the United States’ increasing trade protectionism. South Korea’s expanding trade with Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union initially was encouraged by the United States, although Washington later became increasingly concerned over possible high-technology transfers.
Improved Seoul-Moscow relations were planned in three related stages: sports, trade, and political relations. The 1988 Seoul Olympics was a major catalyst. Moscow sent more than 6,000 Soviets to South Korea and Soviet tourist ships came to Busan and Incheon and Aeroflot planes landed in Seoul.
Because of the lack of diplomatic relations, most South Korean-Soviet trade initially was indirect; Eastern Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore served as intermediaries. With an increasing volume of trade, Seoul and Moscow began trading directly, using facilities near Vladivostok and Busan. The Korean Trade Promotion Corporation (KOTRA) and the Soviet Chamber of Commerce and Industry exchanged a trade memorandum in 1988 pledging mutual assistance in establishing trade offices in 1989. Seoul’s trade office in Moscow opened in July 1989; Moscow’s trade office in Seoul opened in April 1989. Several major South Korean businesses including Daewoo, Sunkyong, and Lucky-Goldstar traded directly with the Soviet Union in 1990.
South Korea’s new-found wealth and technological prowess had been attracting the interest of a growing number of socialist nations. In initiating Nordpolitik, Roh’s confidential foreign policy adviser was rumoured to have visited Moscow to consult with Soviet policymakers. Kim Young Sam visited Moscow from June 2 to June 10, 1989, as the Kremlin announced that it would allow some 300,000 Soviet-Koreans who had been on the Soviet island of Sakhalin since the end of World War II to return permanently to South Korea. Moscow even arranged Kim’s meeting with the North Korean ambassador to the Soviet Union. In June 1990, Roh held his first summit with President Gorbachev in San Francisco.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, South Korea and Russia established diplomatic ties 1991. Russian president Vladimir Putin visited Seoul in February 2001, while South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun visited Moscow in September 2004.
South Korea and Russia are participants in the Six-party talks on the North Korea’s nuclear proliferation issue.
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