In contemporary South Korea, after the adoption of the Doi Moi reform policy in late 1986 in Vietnam and the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Vietnam in December 1992, the interest in Vietnam increased rapidly. As the two countries expanded their cooperation, the increased interest in Vietnam created the “boom” of Vietnamese studies in Korea, which produced many Vietnam specialists during the second half of the 1990s and the fi rst half of the 2000s. These specialists are in the second generation of Vietnamese studies and form the backbone of Vietnamese studies in Korea now. The researches conducted by not only Vietnam specialists but also by researchers who conduct case studies about Vietnam have significantly increased in the fields of economics, business management and social studies. Vietnamese studies in Korea have been closely related to social change. The future task for the development of Vietnamese studies in Korea is to promote quality of researches based on quantitative growth. Received 16 August 2019
published 5 November 2019