ABSTRACT
Closer economic relations between the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and Latin America are attributable both to changes in the Korean industrial structure and to the economic liberalization that took place in Latin America throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays, economic relations between Latin America and South Korea are quantitatively similar to those that Latin America has with other traditional partners; trade and investment structures are asymmetrical in terms of composition, value and technological development, and are not very different to the standard North-South pattern. This chapter argues that this asymmetry relates to differences in the development approaches of the two parties. Korean industrialization and engagement with international markets follow a developmental approach that nurtures domestic capital and technology, whereas the Mexican government has chosen to limit itself as an export platform based on labour-intensive segments of global production, Brazil still has limited technological capacity, and other Latin American countries are mostly exporters of natural resources. Korean relations with Latin American partners have been framed as complementary, with economic cooperation often reinforcing this feature. This chapter challenges this view and discusses the risks that such conceptual framing poses to Latin American development and autonomy.
