Overview of the Korean Official Foreign Assistance: 1945-2010

Korea transitioned from a recipient country of official foreign assistance to a donor country since 1990 with its development.

The history of official foreign assistance of Korea evolved over several stages in accordance with its political, economic and social development processes. Korea was a recipient country of official foreign assistance from 1945 to 1995; however, Korea became a donor country since 1990 with its development. ****Korea went through these five development stages in the period of 1945-2010:

Stage 1 (1945-49)

Under the US Army Military Government (USAMG) and the newly established Korean government

Stage 2 (1950-59)

The Korean War and the country’s period of rehabilitation

Stage 3 (1960-79)

The nation’s rapid industrialization and growth

Stage 4 (1980-99)

Economic and political stabilization and liberalization and includes the Asian Financial Crisis period

Stage 5 (1990-2010)

Korea’s global development cooperation period

[Table 1] Evolution of Official Foreign Assistance for and by Korea

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[Table 2] Changes in Amount of Official Foreign Assistance

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As a recipient country, Korea received $44 billions of official foreign assistance during the social and economic development phase (1945-99).

$44 billions of official foreign assistance include public development grants of about $7 billion and public development loans of $37 billion. The total ODA amounted to approximately $13 billion. The total loan amount can be divided into two:

The Total Loan Amount

ODA

type loans of around $6 billion (with a grant element greater than 25 percent)

OOA

type loans of around $31 billion (with a grant element less than 25 percent)