Twenty years ago, South Korea established diplomatic ties with a number of North Korea's traditional allies, such as Mongolia, with an aim to strengthen its economy, while also isolating the communist regime to ease military tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Over the past two decades, Mongolia shifted into a market economy and the resource-rich nation increased the value of trade with South Korea from just over 2.7 million US dollars in 1990 to nearly 225 million last year.

Spanning some 1.5-6 million square kilometers between East and Central Asia which is more than seven times the size of the Korean peninsula, the country of less than three million people generates 11 percent of its gross domestic product from foreign investment.

Former Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, who stepped down from his post last June was recently in Seoul to meet with officials to discuss expanding bilateral cooperation in trade and culture.