Fiji opened its embassy in Seoul in July 2012 to "foster trade and investment" and to "promote people-to-people exchanges".

The then "interim government" of Fiji, led by Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, continued the "Look North" foreign policy initiated by his predecessor Laisenia Qarase.

Fiji's relations with Western countries are currently poor, due to the lack of democracy in the South Pacific nation, and it is in this context that the Bainimarama administration has turned to Asia.

"[8] In June 2009, the Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement, an organisation founded in Australia to campaign for the restoration of democracy in Fiji, protested outside the South Korean embassy in Canberra, asking South Korea to "withdraw support for the military regime".

[13] Nonetheless, the previous month, the two countries had held "their first ever business forum" to promote enhanced trade relations.