الأبعاد السياسية والدبلوماسية في العلاقات الاقتصادية بين المملكة العربية السعودية وكوريا الجنوبية

Abstract

The Korean civil war broke out on June 25, 1950, then, after the truce declaration in 1953, Korean Peninsula was divided to the South as a democratic state supported by the United States of America and the North as a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China. South Korea had to follow the principle of the Cold War regime in establishing diplomatic relations on the globe, thus it established diplomatic ties with pro-American Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and avoided strengthening its diplomatic ties with Arab states which were leaning toward the communist line such as Syria and Algeria. But South Korea didn’t give up developing relations with other Arab countries through economic contact with those countries excluding political cooperation, waiting for a appropriate time, the post-Cold War era or end of ideological conflict. The world faced the oil crises caused by the oil producing Arab countries’ policy for oil embargo against pro-Israel countries in 1973, which led to the rise in oil prices in the world. Saudi Arabia benefited from the flow of large oil revenue, so that it could implement the development plans. South Korea didn’t lose this opportunity to encourage Korean companies for entering the Saudi market to participate in Saudi development plans, especially in construction field. Even South Korea made great efforts to make a change in its diplomatic direction for supporting the Arab position against Israel despite the opposition of the United State. Since then, the distance between South Korea and Saudi Arabia became much closer at the sacrifice of deteriorating relations with Israel, and finally Israel deided to close its embassy in South Korea in 1978. South Korea achieved remarkable economic achievements in Saudi Arabia by its participation in development plans since 1973. The Korean companies executed 45.3 billion dollars projects in Saudi Arabia during the decade(1973-1984), taking up 60.9% of total Korean construction exports during the same period. So the Kingdom began to witness a significant increase of the number of Korean workers on its area, from 3,931 in 1975 to 117,095 in 1981, making up the third largest group of foreign manpower in Saudi Arabia. South Korea also made a significant contribution to the implementation of Saudi development plans by providing right services with good technology and low contract prices. On the other hand, South Korea took an advantage of this opportunity to procure foreign reserves which was necessary to implement Korean policy aiming at rapid development of industry and export ledeconomic growth. South Korea didn’t pursue relations with Saudi Arabia only, but tried to continue to expand its diplomatic relations with other Gulf states in particular, and the Arab countries in general on the basis of strong strategic relations with the Kingdom. South Korea achieved major achievements in expanding diplomatic relations with Arab countries, especially the Gulf states during the 1970s, with moral support from Saudi Arabia, opening a new era in relations with Arab and Islamic World in all the fields.