Ambassador of Mongolia to Korea Sukhee Sukhbold speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the Mongolian Embassy in Seoul, May 12. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
As Korea races to secure stable supply chains for critical minerals and expand its global health care footprint, Mongolia is emerging as one of Seoul’s most strategically important partners in Northeast Asia. Rich in rare earth resources yet eager to move beyond raw material exports, Ulaanbaatar is now looking to combine its mineral wealth with Seoul’s advanced technology and investment capacity in a partnership that Mongolian Ambassador to Korea Sukhee Sukhbold says could redefine bilateral relations in the coming decade.
In a recent interview with The Korea Times at the Mongolian Embassy in Seoul, Sukhbold described the relationship between Korea and Mongolia as one rooted in “brotherhood relations,” citing historical and cultural connections that predate the formal establishment of diplomatic ties in 1990.
Today, the partnership is increasingly driven by strategic economic interests. Since upgrading their bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership in 2021, Korea and Mongolia have expanded cooperation across a range of sectors, including critical mineral supply chains, infrastructure and investment.
“We have comprehensive cooperation in all sectors, and I would say in some sectors we are really intensifying our cooperation because Korea has very advanced technology while Mongolia has very rich mineral resources,” the ambassador said, emphasizing the complementary nature of the partnership.
At the center of this cooperation is Mongolia’s vast reserve of rare earth minerals and other critical materials essential for semiconductors, batteries and advanced manufacturing industries. Although Mongolia possesses abundant deposits, the country currently exports much of its raw minerals to China with little value-added processing. Sukhbold said Mongolia hopes to diversify and upgrade its rare earths sector as part of its long-term economic strategy.
“We are exporting raw minerals to China and just selling them as they are. But the world needs more processed products,” he said. “Why are we exporting raw materials only? We need to process them and produce the products the world needs."
Sukhbold said one of his main priorities has been attracting Korean investment into Mongolia’s mineral processing sector rather than merely encouraging extraction projects, while also strengthening government-to-government cooperation to build long-term investor confidence.
“Since my arrival in Korea (in 2024), I have focused on only a few priority sectors because I did not want to waste time,” he said. “One of them is combining Korean technology with Mongolia’s minerals.”
The ambassador stressed that Mongolia’s goal is not simply to supply raw materials but to develop local industrial capacity in partnership with Korean firms. He said Mongolia hopes to “establish factories and combine advanced Korean technology with our minerals to create final products together.”
Source: Korea Times News
