South Korean Government Gives Export Boost to Companies Trading in Africa

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol (C) cheers during a ceremony marking the 105th anniversary of the Independence Movement Day in Seoul on March 1, 2024. Kim Hong-Ji/AFP via Getty Images

News Analysis

YAOUNDE, Cameroon—South Korea has become the latest country to join the “Africa Plus Summits” club—a name used to describe gatherings by global powers to win friends and influence people across Africa.

In June, South Korea committed $14 billion in export financing to support its companies investing in Africa while increasing its official development assistance (ODA) to $10 billion by 2030.

While hosting dozens of African leaders at the inaugural South Korea–Africa Summit in Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol said his country will expand development aid to Africa and pursue deeper cooperation with the region of 1.4 billion people on critical minerals and technology.

Up to 48 African countries were represented at the summit by a president, king, prime minister, vice president, or minister to discuss “The Future We Make Together: Shared Growth, Sustainability, and Solidarity.”

The South Korea–Africa summit joins a series of similar events featuring major global economic and political powers—the United States, China, Russia, France, UK, Japan, Turkey, India, and the European Union–bringing together African leaders and businesses with host nation counterparts to peddle their products and influence.

South Korea has almost no investments on the continent—trade with African nations currently accounts for less than 2 percent of South Korea’s total imports and exports.

While South Korea leads in advanced industries, Africa is a globally significant region for critical mineral reserves such as nickel, cobalt, graphite, and lithium.

These minerals are crucial for technology industries such as semiconductors, batteries, and electric vehicles, which are major export items for South Korea.

Paul Nantulya, research associate and China specialist at the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies identifies three reasons that justify the timing and reasoning of this new-found South Korea–Africa dialogue.

First, Mr. Nantulya says Seoul is keen to “rekindle” its engagement and influence in Africa in light of several “Africa–Plus Summits” that other powers have established.

Second, the South Korean government wants to “reduce” or “eliminate” its dependency on China, which currently accounts for more than 90 percent of its mineral supply chain.

“[South] Korea is a leader in clean energy technology and has decided to explore and open new supply chains in Africa,” Mr. Nantulya told The Epoch Times in an email.

The third reason, according to the China specialist, is that South Korea and African countries have “special affinities”, with shared experiences of war and conflict, foreign invasion, economic underdevelopment, and extreme levels of poverty.

“At independence, African economies were more advanced than Korea’s, to such an extent that Korea benchmarked its economic development on economic models in Kenya and other countries,” he said.

“Korea has since overtaken African countries, but the affinities remain strong. Korea wants to revive them.”

South Korea and African nations announced during the summit that they will start high-level talks aimed at improving cooperation over minerals.

African leaders praised South Korea for its open and mutual approach to strengthening cooperation with the continent.

They also highlighted investment opportunities in their own countries and across Africa.

The countries also vowed stronger collaboration in building sustainable infrastructure in Africa, including data-driven smart cities and intelligent transportation systems.

Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, the current chairperson of the African Union—a new G20 member—expressed hopes for South Korean investment in “important sectors” such as commerce, new technologies, energy, food, security, human capital, and infrastructure.

In response, President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged that South Korea would extend its Trade and Investment Promotion Frameworks, and Investment Protection Agreements to African countries.

 Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies says South Korea’s renewed interest in Africa is linked to its “robust” international development policy—including longstanding ties with Africa—derived from South Korea’s own development experience and culture of philanthropy, social investment, and collective well-being.

“As the 13th largest economy in the world, South Korea is also looking to make strategic international investments. With its dynamic economy and growing population, parts of Africa are an attractive destination for such investments,” Mr. Siegle told The Epoch Times in an email.

South Korea’s trade with Africa varies by country and their economic profile.

With South Africa, for instance, South Korea runs a modest trade deficit. With other African countries, South Korea manages a trade surplus consistent with business between countries with industrialized and primary goods economies.

“The fundamental notion of trade is that it is providing each side something it wants but that it cannot produce on its own as efficiently,” notes Mr. Siegle.

“For it to be fair and reciprocal for citizens requires transparency and the consistent application of the rule of law. This is where governance laws and norms come into play.

“As a democracy, South Korea represents a more transparent, accountable, and rules-based trading partner for African countries,” he said.

The China Factor

His views are shared by Andrew Korybko, a Moscow-based American political analyst specializing in the global systemic transition to multipolarity.

Mr. Korybko observes that while the West still attaches “political strings” to its loans, its non-Western partners like South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and India follow the Chinese model of eschewing such requirements.

“Though they’re also much more careful to avoid inadvertently fueling corruption.”

“This approach might resonate much more with the masses, some of whom have begun to espouse anti-government sentiment over the past decade as a reaction to Belt and Road Initiative-related corruption [whether perceived or objectively existing],” Mr. Korybko told The Epoch Times in an email.

Mr. Korybko says that the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” or “Great Reset” will define global economic trends over the coming decades, with all related technologies dependent on certain critical minerals like cobalt, many of which are located in Africa.

He said China currently controls most of that mineral’s production, as well as lithium, which is why its competitors want to diversify from their dependence on its supply chains.

South Korea sought to do this via its inaugural Africa Summit.

“It’s not the only one doing this either since the Financial Times published a detailed report late last month titled, “The UAE’s rising influence in Africa”, which documents its growing role in this industry there,” Mr. Korybko said.

“China’s Indian neighbor, with whom it’s been in fierce competition since their lethal clashes over the Galwan River Valley in summer 2020, is also looking to expand its associated presence in Africa.

“Western countries are doing the same … for identical purposes.”

The combined effect of all this, Mr. Korybko explains, is that China’s “disproportionate control” over critical mineral supply chains will “likely erode” with time as South Korea, the UAE, India, the EU, and the United States all make competitive bids to develop new African deposits and production sites.

“The larger context ... concerns the New Cold War competition between China and the United States over the future of the ongoing global systemic transition,” Mr. Korybko says.

“China wants a greater role for itself in global governance, which it believes can only be achieved by strengthening its relations of complex economic interdependence with the rest of the world, particularly through its dominant role in critical mineral and other supply chains.

“By contrast, the United States wants to preserve the West’s traditional role atop the informal post-World War II international hierarchy, to which end it seeks to help China’s partners diversify from their complex economic interdependence with it.”

Mr. Korybko concludes that Africa has become a “pivotal battleground” in this competition due to the role that its mineral wealth will play in the future, as its growing population makes it one of the most attractive emerging markets in the world.

“China requires reliable access—and from its perspective, privileged access as well—to these minerals and equally reliable [and privileged] access to their markets ... to continue growing, which the United States and its like-minded partners want to deny it in order to manage China’s rise.”

Containing North Korea

South Korea’s outreach to Africa comes as North Korea is becoming more active in trying to break out of its diplomatic isolation and build cooperation with countries confronting the United States.

Its leader Kim Jong Un embraces the idea of a “new Cold War.”

In a joint statement, South Korea and the African nations reaffirmed their commitment to the full implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions against North Korea.

They also highlighted the importance of the efforts of the international community to achieve a “complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea has long-standing relations with several African nations, including Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, although some governments in the region have scaled back ties with Pyongyang amid tightened U.N. sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

North Korea recently accelerated its tests of nuclear-capable weapons systems and as relations between the war-divided Koreas worsened Pyongyang released hundreds of balloons to drop tons of trash and manure on South Korea.

Mr. Kim in recent months has boosted the visibility of his ties with Russia and China and sent a government delegation to Iran.

Mr. Yoon urged African countries to take firmer steps in an international pressure campaign against North Korea.

“South Korea, historically threatened by its nuclear-armed hostile neighbor, is also seeking diplomatic support around the globe,” confirms Tibor Nagy, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

“Africa, which has the largest contingent of countries among the continents in international organizations, is again an ideal target of opportunity,” Mr. Nagy told The Epoch Times in an email.

Joseph Siegle of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies foresees South Korea using the just concluded summit as a “launching pad” to widen and deepen its economic engagements in select African countries with a strong commitment to transparency and the rule of law.

“I anticipate that we will see a growing and sustained economic partnership between South Korea and Africa,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Africa represents a region with growing economic potential and so there are strong incentives for South Korea to expand its economic ties.

“Meanwhile, trade is a key element of South Korea’s economy.”