After the borders between Russia and the Republic of Korea were opened in 1990, the first South Korean students majored in Russian studies began to come to Moscow and St. Petersburg to study at the universities there. That was how the Korean students started to explore the Open Air Museum, the name often used to describe St. Petersburg, which they had only been able to read about in the famous Russian classic novels. It must be said that the history of Russian-Korean relations began in St. Petersburg long before that, at the end of the 19th century, when the first Korean Diplomatic Mission headed by Min Young-Hwan visited St. Petersburg. The delegation included interpreter Kim Byeong-Ok, who later became a teacher of Korean at St. Petersburg Imperial University. Since then, for more than 120 years, students have been studying classical and modern Korean studies at St. Petersburg State University. St. Petersburg warmly welcomed the first representatives of the Republic of Korea, and up to this day has continued to develop and strengthen bilateral contacts in all areas, both at an official level and at the level of public diplomacy. In this article, the author talks about the results and prospects for future development of bilateral relations on the example of St. Petersburg.