Russia, North and South Korea

Initially, I wanted to choose three Middle Eastern countries to form a multinational market with the conviction that it could ease political, cultural, and geographical tensions in that region. Instead, I choose the Republic of Korean (South Korea), the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), and Russia as they might have some logical basis for establishing a multinational market organization in the form of a regional cooperation for development (RCD). Perhaps, eventually, this could form a free trade agreement. These countries were chosen because of their close proximity to one another, and the combination of Russian energy and resources, North Korean territory and labor, and South Korean capital and technology. However, this would require major changes and cooperation made amongst these countries.

There have been decades of tension between North and South Korea due to political, diplomatic, and military differences. Korea has been divided since the end of World War II in 1945. Nevertheless, a survey by Zachary Keck found that about 60 percent of South Koreans view North Korea as a cooperative partner (2014). North Korea is a small, impoverished, and isolated country, whereas South Korea is wealthy, populous, and industrialized (Sedghi & Rogers, 2013). North Korea also has the distinction of being the most corrupt country in the world, especially with its involvement with nuclear weapons (Sedghi & Rogers, 2013). Both North and South Korea is in need of natural resources and Russia is able to provide them both with energy from its abundance of oil fields and natural gas reserves. Russia would be able to run lines through North Korea to South Korea, though the idea is risky because North Korea may exhort control over the lines (Petrov, 2008). This RCD would "create conditions for socio-economic revitalization of the North that will be a positive contribution to the eventual unification of the Korean peninsula" (Petrov, 2008).

There are political differences between these three countries. North Korea is a communist state with a one-man dictatorship, and a cold-war mentality. South Korea is a democratic republic and Russia is a federation. Despite the fact the cooperation between these countries would be motivated by profit and economic reasoning, ideological differences may hamper this arrangement. North Korea's nuclear involvement, ideologies, and instability continues to be an issue for the entire world. It can be difficult for any country to gain trust in North Korea.