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1 1 (May 18, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govedis0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Inforrming the legislative debate since 1914 South Korea: Background and U.S. Relations Overview South Korea (officially the Republic of Korea, or ROK) is one of the United States' most important strategic and economic partners in Asia. The U.S.-ROK Mutual Defense Treaty, signed in 1953 at the end of the Korean War, commits the United States to help South Korea defend itself, particularly from North Korea (officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK). The alliance also helps the United States promote its interests in East Asia and around the globe, including by deploying ROK troops to U.S.-led military conflicts in the Middle East. Approximately 28,500 U.S. troops are based in the ROK. The economic relationship is bolstered by the U.S.- South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). In 2020, South Korea was the United States' seventh-largest trading partner, and the United States was South Korea's second-largest trading partner, behind China. On May 21, President Joseph Biden and ROK President Moon Jae-in are scheduled to meet in Washington, DC. The meeting, Biden's second in-person summit after one with Japan's prime minister, appears to signal the Administration's priority on the Indo-Pacific region and on reinvigorating U.S. alliances. Under the Trump Administration, the U.S.-ROK alliance was strained by disputes over South Korean contributions to cost-sharing arrangements to host U.S. troops. During the upcoming summit, the two leaders reportedly are expected to discuss North Korea policy, a Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID- 19) vaccine partnership, the challenges of dealing with China's rise, U.S.-South Korea-Japan coordination, and cooperation to make semiconductor supply chains more resilient. North Korea Policy Coordination North Korea is the dominant strategic concern in the U.S.- South Korea relationship. Moon has championed U.S.- North Korea talks, which he views as critical to preventing military conflict and to realizing his goal of establishing a durable peace on the Korean Peninsula. In April 2021, the Biden Administration announced it had completed a review of DPRK policy, and that it will pursue a calibrated, practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with North Korea to achieve eventually the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Although Moon has welcomed the mention of diplomacy, his preference for more aggressive engagement with North Korea could create tensions with the United States. North Korea's steady advances in its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs were not stopped by over two years of personal diplomacy between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. U.S.-DPRK talks halted in early 2019 due to differences over the scope and sequencing of concessions, specifically North Korean Updated May 18, 2021 denuclearization measures in exchange for relief from international and U.S. sanctions. Kim also has linked progress on denuclearization talks to the cessation of U.S. joint military exercises with and shipments of advanced military equipment to South Korea. O~fNA NORTH KOREA Yongyon *Pyongyang Comnplex< 0* Seoul Kaesonq SOU TH Comple A ra ble La nd: 1535 (201 esat.) Po pulation: 51. m illion Infant Mortality: 2.9 deaths/1000 live births (U.S. 5.2 Fertility Rate: 1.1 children born/woman (U.S. 18) GDP Per Capita (2019 est.): $28,941 (U.S. = $62530) Sources: Graphic created bCRS. Map, Esri Data and Maps 2019. Fact informnation, CIA World Factbook. In the near term, some analysts worry Kim will abandon his three-and-a-half-year-old unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests and long-range ballistic missile tests. North Korea has continued to test short- and medium-range missiles and to conduct cyberattacks around the globe. U.N. and U.S. sanctions remain in place, officially barring nearly all of North Korea's typical exports and many of its imports. The sanctions severely limit cooperation activities that the Moon government favors. Inter-Korean relations under Moon have closely tracked U.S.-North Korea relations, improving markedly in 2018-when three Moon-Kim summits were held-before collapsing in 2019. Since early 2019, Pyongyang largely has ignored Seoul's outreach and has severed all overt inter-Korean communication channels. U.S.-South Korea Security Issues Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has described the U.S.- ROK alliance as the linchpin of peace and security in the region and among the most combined, interoperable, capable and dynamic alliances in the world. The alliance showed signs of strain in the past several years, as President Trump was openly skeptical of the value of the alliance and requested steep increases in funds from South Korea to offset the cost of hosting U.S. troops on the Peninsula. In its first two months in office, the Biden Administration concluded a cost-sharing negotiation with South Korea that boosted South Korea's contribution 13.9%. South Korea traditionally has paid for about 50% (over $800 million annually) of the total non-personnel costs of the U.S. https://crsrepoi

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