Home > Korea & Latin America > Brief History     The first contact between Korea and Latin America was made when a group of Koreans set foot on the soil of Mexico in an attempt to escape from poverty almost 100 years ago. Ever since, Latin America, with its abundant natural resources and beautiful environment, has represented opportunities and attractions to many Koreans. Despite such a long standing interest, however, Latin America has remained as the land of obscurity due to its geographical distance stretching across the Pacific Ocean that divides two regions into different hemispheres. It was by and large after 1990s that serious attempts were made to take advantage of the opportunities Latin America offered to Korea. Subsequent relations between two sides went through a fundamental change thereafter in various fields ranging from economic interactions to cultural and human exchanges. Physically apart yet psychologically closer, Latin America has regained its attractiveness from Koreans as the land of enchantment throughout the decade. As the 21st Century unfolds before us casting both challenges and opportunities of different nature on a global scale, the task of building on the momentum of current favorable relations with Latin America is gaining further priority in Korea's foreign policy as the region epitomizes unmeasurable potentials to be exploited through a closer and more viable cooperation. It is not well known that Cuba was the first country from the region to recognize the newly independent Republic of Korea in 1949. When North Korea invaded the South in 1950, the Colombians stood among those who fought to restore peace in the Korean Peninsula under the banner of the United Nations allied forces. It was no sooner than the late 1950s that Korea began to establish its diplomatic relations with Latin American countries. Starting with Brazil in 1959, Korea has established diplomatic ties with most Latin American countries by mid 1960s. The year 1962 is especially noteworthy since Korea succeeded in that year in establishing diplomatic ties with as many as 15 countries in the region including Mexico, Argentine, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and so on. During the period from 1960s to 1980s, Korea's foreign policy toward Latin America has been based on three pillars, namely securing anti-communist allies, destination for Korean emigration abroad, and limited commercial partners. First, anti-communist ideology dominated Korea's foreign policy during the Cold War era. At that time, South Korea was in desperate need of international support and allies in order to secure its socio-political and territorial integrity from the northern threat and to gain international leverage over the North. Thus South Korea's foreign policy toward Latin America in this period was always linked to securing such support. Most Latin American countries were under anti-communist, rightist regime, like South Korea, and backed South Korea's initiatives aimed at obtaining legitimacy and recognition by the international community. Second, Korean emigration began in the early 20th Century Yi Dynasty in response to dire economic conditions and sociopolitical instability caused by the clash of imperial interests between Japan and Russia. In 1905, one of the first groups of overseas migrants headed for Mexico to work on sugar cane farms. After the Korean war (1950-1953), some North Korean prisoners who did not want to be repatriated reportedly left for new settlements in Latin America. However, it was not until Overseas Emigration Act (Act 1030) was instituted in 1962 that modern emigration of Koreans to Latin America took full steam. The principal destination designated under Act 1030 was Latin America. The Korean government intended to promote emigration to the region with the goals of "an efficient population policy, economic stability, and enhancement of national prestige." Latin America with its vast territory and rich natural resources, was attractive to contemporary Koreans, and the region also welcomed more labor force for its agricultural and industrial development. The first emigrants under this scheme, a group of 97 left for Brazil in December 1962. Since then, thousands of Koreans have emigrated to Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru, and Chile. An estimated 100,000 Korean immigrants and their descendants are now living in Latin America. Third, Korea's export-drive policy and Latin America's import-substitution strategy structurally limited close economic interaction between the two parties. Although Korea's exports steadily grew, the Latin American market at that time was too closed to contribute to Korea's export to a substantial extent. Under the import-substitution industrialization strategy, Latin American companies produced manufactured goods in light industries leaving little room for Korean companies to penetrate the market. In parallel, Korea's economy did not reach the industrial level at which it could generate industrial capital and technology that Latin America needed. As a consequence, throughout the 1960s Korea imported mainly natural resources such as mineral ores from Brazil, Chile and other Latin American countries, while exporting limited consumer products. During this period, the trade balance was always extremely favorable to Latin America. Since the 1970s, as Korea's economy grew rapidly while pushing forward on export market diversification, Korea's exports to the region began to increase and the trade balance turned around in favor of Korea. At the same time, Korea became more and more interested in Latin America's abundant natural resources to support its nascent heavy and petro-chemical industries. Hence, the first-stage complementary relationship rather than competitive ones between the two parties began to emerge. However, the Latin American market was too remote and closed to be paid special attention to by the Korean government as well as the corporate sector until late 1980s. In the 1990s, the political and economic situations around the world posed daunting challenges to the traditional pillars of Korea's foreign policy toward Latin America, and Korea-Latin America relations went through a fundamental change ranging from economic interactions to cultural exchanges. First, the end of the Cold War shook the ideological basis of Korea-Latin America relations. At the end of the Cold War, anti-communist ideology lost its cohesiveness as a binding force among many traditional allies. Instead, urgent necessities to adapt to a new international environment took its place as a new policy guide line. Korea and Latin America were not an exception to this trend and vigorously sought to diversify their diplomatic relations beyond the Iron Curtain. Facing the sea changes of international environment, Korea and Latin America shared common challenges of overcoming overdependence of their political and economic relations on the small number of super powers. Naturally Korea and Latin America began to see each other from different perspectives. Second, Korea's economic growth and Latin America's economic turmoil questioned the usefulness of the emigration policy. The initial aims of Act 1030 became obsolete by the time of the late 1980s. The rapid growth and improved industrial structure achieved over the past three decades eliminated the dire need for the export of manpower to other regions. Third, market-oriented economic reform and trade liberalization of Latin American countries since late 1980s have provided Korea with new opportunities to strengthen its economic interactions with Latin America. In the 1990s, Korean exports to Latin America continuously increased due to growing consumer purchasing power of the region. In full awareness of the urgent need to upgrade relations with Latin American countries, the Korean President ROH Tae-woo visited Mexico in 1991 and the succeeding President KIM Young-sam made the first-ever state visit to five Latin American countries in 1996. And, Latin American and Caribbean Bureau was established in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Korea in the ensuing year to provide the momentum for cooperation between Korea and Latin America. In a nutshell, Korea began to reevaluate the fundamentals of its relations with Latin America at the turn of the 1990s; its traditional pillars such as anti-communist ideology, international emigration, and limited commercial relations no longer served the dynamic political and economic environments surrounding Korea and Latin America. As more practical issues such as trade, investment, the protection of environment, prevention of international crimes and economic development of under-developed countries began to dominate international relations, the agenda for Korea-Latin America relations became more diversified and intensified. Beginning the 2000s, Korea-Latin America cooperation relations has steadily been promoted in the area of economy and trade. The establishment of the Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement represents this promotion. In addition to the area of economy and trade, the scope of cooperation has been broaden to other areas such as personal exchange, international organization cooperation, culture, art and so on. Moreover, President Noh’s visit to Brazil, Argentina and Chile in the year 2004 provided a great opportunity for the further development of the “Korea- Latin America Comprehensive Cooperation Relations,” strengthening and broadening the scope of friendly relations and mutual cooperation.