assistance to South Korea and helped the country rebuild itself. Since then, the Philippines's relations with South Korea have evolved with South Korea becoming one of the Philippines's most important bilateral partners aside from the United States, China and Japan. The Philippines's government seeks to cultivate strategic ties with South Korea given its increasing presence in the country. In the coming years, the Philippines anticipates to benefit from exploring unprecedented opportunities from South Korea that shall contribute significantly to the country's trade and economy, defense and security, and society and culture. Russia In the 1980s South Korean president Roh Tae Woo's Nordpolitik and Mikhail Gorbachev's "New Thinking" were both attempts to reverse their nations' recent histories. Gorbachev had signaled Soviet interest in improving relations with all countries in the Asia-Pacific region including South Korea as explained in his July 1986 Vladivostok and August 1988 Krasnoyarsk speeches. In initiating Nordpolitik Roh's confidential foreign policy adviser was rumored to have visited Moscow Russia to consult with Soviet policymakers. Kim Young Sam visited Moscow Russian Federation from June 2 to June 10, 1989 as the Kremlin announced that it would allow some 300,000 Soviet-South Koreans who had been on the Soviet island of Sahkalin since the end of World War II to return permanently to South Korea. Moscow even arranged Kim's meeting with the North Korean ambassador to the Soviet Union In June 1990, Roh held his first summit with president Gorbachev in San Francisco, United States. South Korea and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations on September 30, 1990. These relations continued by the Russian Federation on December 27, 1991. Russian president Vladimir Putin visited Seoul in February 2001 while South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun visited Moscow Russia in September 2004. Russian Federal Space Agency and the Korean Astronaut Program cooperated together to send South Korea's first astronaut into space. Yi So-Yeon became the first South Korean national as well as the third woman to be the first national in space on 8 April 2008 when Soyuz TMA-12 departed from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Since the 1990s there has been greater trade and cooperation between the Russian Federation and South Korea. The total trade volume between South Korea and Russia in 2003 was 4.2 billion U.S. dollars. United Kingdom The establishment of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and South Korea began on 18 January 1949. Visits from South Korea to the United Kingdom: