South Korea and COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020–2021: Changes in Socioeconomic Parameters Reviewed

Introduction. The modern world is going through one of its most difficult periods in the history. The new virus, called COVID-19, was not at first perceived by the world community as a real threat that would fundamentally change the global way of life, making it reconsider the methods of implementing collective security and close borders. Many states had to isolate not only at the international level, but also had to close their regions to reduce the number of the infected. This led to disruptions of transport, logistics and socio-economic ties and resulted in a most unusual situation — the global isolation of states. Every state had to build their own tactics and strategies for overcoming the crisis. In this respect, the case of the Republic of Korea is of particular interest. The article aims to analyze the situation with COVID-19 in the Republic of Korea in 2020–2021 and measures taken by the Republic’s government to combat the spread of COVID-19 and reduce negative trends. The study focuses on the key characteristics of these methods and their effectiveness. The research materials were based on the data of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Korea, the Korea Export-Import Bank, the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), the Trade Department of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Mongolia (KOTRA), and of such international organizations as the WTO, OECD, and IMF. The study employed general scientific (analysis, synthesis) and historical methods proper — retrospective, comparative, and structural. Results. The article indicates that despite some decline in general economic performance, the Republic of Korea was able to adapt to the new conditions caused by the coronavirus infection. The crisis was largely overcome thanks to organizing, among other things, a system of public-private partnership in the field of diagnostics, prevention, and treatment of the infected. Analysis of the set of measures taken by the Republic’s government, as well as of the official statistics, allows to identify the main trends in the development of the socio-economic sphere in the past two years of the pandemic. By way of concluding, it may be pointed out that the case of the Republic of Korea, with the tactics of its government and the social experience accumulated, is of significant relevance for other states in their efforts to combat the coronavirus and its social consequences, granted that the world community has to develop optimal strategies to overcome the pandemic.

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