Newly-appointed Mongolian Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh will make his first official visit to South Korea on 15-17 January. The trip to Seoul, will also be his first official visit since taking office in October.

There is always public speculation as to the first country which a newly appointed head-of-state or prime minister will visit. In the case of PM Khurelsukh, most people had thought that he would make his first official visit to Beijing. As Mongolia is sandwiched between the Russian Federation and China and is dependent on the former for fuel imports and on the latter for the bulk of its exports, Mr Khurelsukh’s choice of South Korea, may be seen as a wise choice.  Ulaanbaatar has close connections with Seoul: currently, no less than 46,000 of its citizens are living and working in South Korea.