History of bilateral cooperation in the field of fisheries between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea

Abstract

Fisheries, known to provide food security, have played a significant role in the economy of the Republic of Korea (ROK). With an increase in population and seafood consumption, ROK has been forced to seek out new sources of seafood from abroad and locate new fishing grounds for its fishing fleet. This propelled the development of bilateral cooperation in the field of fisheries with the USSR (later Russian Federation) in 1991. Since then, bilateral cooperation in the field of fisheries has developed rapidly, especially in fishing, combatting IUU fishing, and scientific research. Unfortunately, the great potential of cooperation in the fields of fish processing and aquaculture is still undeveloped, but Russia and Korea are trying to advance it as its great potential is hard to be ignored. This article is devoted to the problem of establishing and developing bilateral cooperation in the field of fisheries between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea. It examines the history of the development of cooperation between the two countries in the field of fisheries in five main areas of collaboration: fishing, fish processing, aquaculture, combatting IUU fishing, and science. In order to carry out this study, the author analyzed three types of sources: statistical data, documents and reports of official institutions, and data collected from the news agencies’ archives.