CONSULAR OFFICES
Korea
(the Republic of Korea)
The Consulate General of South Korea in Saint Petersburg:
32A, ulitsa Nekrasova, Saint Petersburg
Tel: (812) 448-19-09
The Consulate General of South Korea in Vladivostok:
19, Pologaya ulitsa, Vladivostok, 190091 (working hours: Monday to Friday, 9.00-18.00)
Tel: (4232) 22-7729
Fax: (4232) 22-9471
E-mail: krconsvl@fastmail.vladivostok.ru
Holidays
You can find more information on the page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea.
Information:
The Republic of Korea (South Korea) was proclaimed independent state on August 15, 1948.
1. TERRITORY AND POPULATION
The total area is 99,35 thousand square km or this is 45% of all the territory of Korea.
The capital is Seoul. The country is divided into 8 provinces (do), 1 special autonomous province (teukbyeol jachido), 6 metropolitan cities (gwangyeoksi), and 1 special city (teukbyeolsi).
As of the beginning of 2007 the population of South Korea is 48 million inhabitants. The population density is one of the highest in the world (490 people per square kilometer). The Republic of Korea is a homogeneous country. Approximately 70% of the inhabitants live in the cities and about a quarter in Seoul.
2. POLITICAL SYSTEM
The acting constitution of the Republic of Korea was adopted on the national referendum on October 27, 1987.
President. The Republic of Korea is a presidential republic. The President is elected for a single five-year term by popular vote through universal, equal, direct, secret balloting. He cannot be re-elected for the second term. The president is the head of the state and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
In December, 2002 Roh Moo-hyun was elected the president of the country (49% of the votes). He was inaugurated on February 25, 2003.
National Assembly. Legislative power is vested in the National Assembly, a unicameral legislature. The Assembly is composed of 299 members serving four-year terms. Out of 299 members, 243 are elected by popular vote from local constituencies, while the remaining 56 members obtain their seats through a proportional representation system in which seats are allocated to each political party that has gained 3 percent or more of all valid votes or five or more seats in the local constituency election. The elections to the National Assembly of 17th convocation took place in April, 2004
State Council. The government of the Republic of Korea includes Prime Minister (Han Duck Soo), 3 Deputy Prime Ministers which are the Minister of Finance and Economy (Kwon Okyu), the Minister of Education and Human Resources Development (Kim Shin-il) and the Minister of Science and Technology (Kim Woo-sik), other Ministers and the Heads of the governmental organizations. Members of the State Council are appointed by the President and approved by the National Assembly.
The elections to the institutions of local government were held on May 31, 2006 (one time in four years).
3. INTERNAL POLITICAL SITUATION
Coming to power of Roh Moo-hyun‘s administration was accompanied by the appearance of the new generation of South-Korean politicians. Antagonism between "new" and "old" political elite resulted in the unprecedented impeachment to the president pronounced by the National Assembly in March, 2004. In May, 2004 the term of the president office was renewed.
As of the beginning of January, 2007 the seats in the National Assembly are distributed as follows: the Open Our Party – 143 seats, Grand National Party (GNP)– 126 seats, Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) – 11 seats, Democratic Labor Party (DLP) – 9 seats, People‘s Party – 5 seats. Other deputies are independent. On June 19, 2006 the speaker of the National Assembly was elected Lim Si Cheng.
In December, 2007 there will be presidential elections that now defines the whole internal political life of South Korea.
Despite the fact that the Roh Moo-hyun‘s rating is getting lower (14,6 %), and the rating of ruling party is much lower (11,7 %), it is rather early to make conclusions. The uncertainty is explained by the fact that political parties have not defined candidates for the presidential post.
4. ARMED FORCES
The total number of the South-Korean armed forces is approximately 681 thousand persons, including the Land Forces – 550 thousand persons, the Air Forces – 64 thousand persons, the Naval Forces – 67 thousand persons.
Apart from the regular armed forces, there are reserve forces in South Korea: local reserve troops are approximately of 3 million persons, Civil Defence Corps – 50 thousand persons. The Ministry of Defence has developed the plan for the armed forces reformation till 2020 with the purpose to increase the fighting efficiency of the armed forces under the conditions of the staff number reduction (from 681 thousand to 500 thousand persons), owing to their equipment with the sophisticated armaments.
The president manages the Armed Forces via the Minister of National Defence and the last via South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. According to the American-South-Korean pact of military assistance of 1954, there are American forces (30,5 thousand persons) on the territory of the Republic of Korea. The ships of 7-th fleet of the Naval Forces of the USA regularly come into the South Korean ports. There are 20 American military bases on the territory of the Republic of Korea.
After the consultations on the reformation of allied relationship between Korea and the USA, the number of American troops in Korea will be reduced by one third till 2008.
In December, 1991 Korea announced that there is no nuclear weapon on its territory.
5. ECONOMY
In 2005 the rates of the economical growth were slowing down in South Korea. The GDP increased only by 3.9% in comparison with 4.6% in 2004.
The reasons for this situation were the low level of the investments and the consumer demand; the slowdown of the growth rate of the export and of the industrial production in the first half of the year. In the second half of the year the economical situation in Korea improved (the GDP growth was 4.5%) however the results achieved did not essentially change the aggregate rates.
Limited character of the Korean home market, high costs of energy and low dollar rate restrained the investors‘ activity. The volume of direct foreign investments reduced to 9.6% and in 2005 it totaled US$11,6 billion.
According to the results of 2006, the Republic of Korea is 11th country in the world considering the foreign trade turnover. Nevertheless, owing to the unfavorable international situation, there was a slowdown of South-Korean export and import being marked. The foreign trade balance totaled US$25 billion (in 2004 it was approximately US$30 billion). In 2006 gold and foreign currency reserves increased to US$11,33 billion, that is US$210,4 billion (the fifth place in the world after Japan, China, Taiwan and Russia).
6. FOREIGN POLICY
The main foreign policy goals of the present Korean government remain a favorable international atmosphere to establish peace on the Korean peninsula, a policy of „peace and prosperity“ with the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and also a speedy settlement of the North-Korean nuclear problem and a contribution to Korea‘s conversion into a financial and economic center of North-East Asia.
To achieve these goals, Korean government works in close cooperation with the USA, Japan, China, Russia, EU, ASEAN and other countries that have a real influence on the situation in the region. Although the strategic policy of Korea to strengthen the alliance with the USA has not been essentially changed, the present government pursues more balanced foreign policy.
The present government pays high attention to the multilateral diplomacy and takes part in various international forums (APEC, „ASEAN + 3“, ARF, ASEM, etc.). Korea actively cooperates with other states to decide regional and international safety problems. Korea consistently stands for strengthening a key role of the UN in a struggle against the international terrorism, drug industry, organized crime, economic backwardness and poverty.
7. INTER-KOREAN RELATIONS
According to the Agreement of armistice, signed on July 27, 1953, as a result of Korean war of 1950-1953, Southern and Northern Koreas are divided by a demarcation line with a demilitarized zone of 4 kilometers in width.
A breakthrough in the Inter-Korean relations became the first inter-Korean summit, which was held in Pyongyang on 13-15, June 2000 and resulted in the South-North Joint Declaration.
Later on mutual relations developed unevenly: phases of improvement altered with long declines and conflicting situations. At the same time, positive dynamics was observed in economic cooperation: a mutual turnover increased (to US$1,4 billion in 2006); a new joint large-scale projects were carried out, i.e. tourist project in Mount Kumgang (234,45 thousand tourists have visited the resort in 2006, the growth by 21.4 %); a creation of techno park; railways and highways of North and South were connected.
North Korea‘s test firing of nuclear missiles in October, 2006 disrupted this reconciliatory mood and raised tensions again on the Korean Peninsula. This led to the break-off in the 19th round of the Inter-Korean negotiations at ministers‘ level and the cease of mutual contacts.
In July 2007, North Korea ceased operations of four more nuclear facilities after closing its key nuclear reactor – which produced weapons-grade plutonium – to comply with the February 13, 2007, Agreement reached through the Six-Party Talks.
Reflecting the improvements in the North Korean nuclear issue, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-il held a summit from October 2 to 4 in Pyongyang. The 2007 South-North Korean Summit resulted in the Declaration on the Advancement of South-North Korean Relations, Peace and Prosperity, which calls for a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War and bilateral economic cooperation among others.
8. SOUTH KOREA – RUSSIA RELATIONS
Diplomatic normalization between the Republic of Korea and the Soviet Union in 1990 was an outcome of Seoul‘s "Northern Diplomacy" and Moscow‘s "new thinking" foreign policy. For South Korea, the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union served as a catalyst in the attempt to reinforce its foreign policy. Concerning the mutual complement of the national interests of respective countries, namely the security interest of the Republic of Korea versus the economic interest of the Soviet Union, bilateral relations between the two countries attracted great anticipation.
The election of Vladimir Putin as the president of Russia and the inter-Korean summit meeting in June, 2000 made new environment for developing South Korea-Russia relations. Russia and the two Koreas respectively held summit talks in recent years and these exchanges led to intensive cooperation between Seoul and Moscow. Political dialogue and mutual visits at various levels, including those between the two Foreign Ministries, government agencies, judicial and legislative bodies, are also actively being pushed. At present, Korea and Russia have similar views on many regional and international issues, and this helps each nation to define its position and to defend it on the international level.
On the economic front the two nations have agreed to push for economic projects, including a railroad connection via North Korea, as well as South Korea-Russia bilateral programs in the fields of natural resources, fisheries, transportation, information and communications and technology. The total volume of trade between the two countries has increased significantly from US$900 million in 1990 to US$3.8 billion in 1996. Since the financial crises the total has fallen, but in the year of 2000 bilateral trade has recovered to the total volume of US$2.8 billion. Direct investment by Korean firms in Russia is the area that has received the most attention and anticipation from both countries.
In 2006 Russian export to Korea totaled US$4,6 billion, having increased by 16% in comparison with 2005. Nevertheless, an essential problem is still that oil products prevail in the export (more than 90%). Unfortunately, this negative tendency is kept in 2007.
In 2006 the import has increased by 34% in comparison with 2005, having totaled US$5,2 billion. The staple exports are industrial equipment and transport facilities (more than 60%).
Main investment projects realized in 2006-2007 are a trade and hotel complex „Lotte“ in Moscow and putting into operation an enterprise of „LG Electronics“ company in the town of Ruza (Moskovskaya oblast). The volume of Russian investments into Korean economy is rather small. In 2006 it totaled US$75,6 million, out of which US$260 thousand were direct investments.
Source: mid.ru and www.korea.net
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