Analysis Of South Korea Energy Strategy

As the material basis of national economic development, energy is playing amore and more important role in the social operational mechanism. Because mostenergy is limited and non-renewable, the competition of energy becomes more andmore fierce. Nowadays, being the strategy resource, energy has already become theflexible key actor, which is affecting not only economy, but also international politicsand diplomacy.South Korea, a new industrialized country in the world, demands more and moreenergy and pays a lot of attention to it now. In consideration of severe situation ofenergy supply and demand, South Korea has begun to research its energy strategysince1960s. According to practical situation, South Korea makes and adjusts itsenergy strategy continuously. In this thesis, I analyze the background, main contents,achievements, problems and future trends of South Korea energy strategy withmethod of theoretical analysis and empirical analysis. Nowadays, the main contents ofSouth Korea energy strategy include four parts: developing overseas energy resourcesto secure the energy supply; developing new renewable energy to realize sustainabledevelopment; strengthening energy diplomacy to implement energy policies; andpromoting regional energy cooperation to ensure energy safety. In order to achievethese goals government and enterprises in South Korea did a lot. The first step ofSouth Korea government was to provide guarantee for the implementation of energystrategy from the perspectives of law and organization. Then government offeredfunds to enterprises and energy research institutes. In order to investigate theimplement effects, South Korea government set concrete standards. In addition,government formulated effective industrial policy to adjust to the development ofenergy strategy. Meanwhile, two patterns were taken in the effects of South Koreaenterprises, one was to invest to countries with abundant energy directly and the otherone was to attract foreign investment into domestic industries. Through continuous efforts, South Korea energy strategy achieved good effects.Energy strategic reserves increased, green energy got full development and utilization,energy importation diversification realized and situation of energy security improvedto a certain extent. But there are still some problems in South Korea energy strategy.The government participated too much in energy supply and price decision, leading toinadequate marketization of energy strategy. The energy consumption structure had nofundamental change, the proportion of oil, coal and natural gas in total energyconsumption was still as high as85%. Energy supply system was fragile becausemore than80%of South Korea energy depended on importation. South Korea hadmade good progress on bilateral cooperation of energy, however, the multilateralcooperation was inefficient.I analyze the future trend of South Korea energy strategy in the end of this thesis.The South Korea government will strengthen legislation which are relevant withenergy industry and set up independent management institutions to give full play tothe role of the price mechanism and improve the competitiveness of the energymarket. And the government will construct an energy-saving society by optimizingenergy consumption structure and improving energy utilization efficiency. Then theywill promote the development of new energy through strengthening support to theinnovation of new energy field and training professional talents. And South Koreagovernment will promote multilateral energy diplomatic process on the basis offabulous results of bilateral cooperation. At last, I analyze the attitudes of South Koreagovernment to nuclear after the case of nuclear leakage in Japan and the accident ofKori nuclear power plant, and get the conclusion that South Korea will developnuclear continuously with more attention on nuclear safety.