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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). South
Korea is the United States' seventh-largest trading partner,
and the United States is South Korea's second-largest
trading partner, behind China.

Policy cooperation between the United States and South
Korea was inconsistent under the administrations of Donald
Trump  and Moon Jae-in. President Moon, a progressive,
was elected in May 2017 after a decade of conservative
rule. President Biden has called for reinvigorating the
alliance, suggesting he would abandon President Trump's
repeated use of punitive tariffs against allies like Seoul and
his demand for a five-fold increase in South Korea's
payments for the costs of hosting U.S. troops. Unlike
Trump, Biden has not signaled an interest in demanding
new concessions in the KORUS  FTA or withdrawing U.S.
troops from South Korea. Bilateral difficulties could
surface, however, over North Korea policy. Moon's
government favors easing sanctions against Pyongyang, a
stance that could create tensions with Washington.

South Korea's COVI D-19 Response
Despite being one of the countries first hit by COVID-19 in
early 2020, South Korea has largely contained the virus
without resorting to lockdowns. As of early February 2021,
the country reported around 79,000 cumulative cases and
around 1,400 deaths. The government's success stems in
part from lessons learned after a 2015 deadly outbreak of
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)  exposed flaws
in the country's public health system. In response, South
Korea passed legislation granting the government greater
powers to monitor and track individual patients and to
allow private companies to produce health tests rapidly.
These changes have helped South Korea manage the
COVID-19   pandemic with aggressive testing, contact
tracing, and public communication. The government has
emphasized transparency, disseminating information about
the virus' spread, including about possible infections at the
neighborhood level. At times, South Korea has prohibited
large gatherings, including anti-government rallies,
prompting criticism. Moon also has been criticized for


Updated February 2, 2021


being slow to procure COVID vaccines, which are expected
to be available in February.


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. North Korea's
steady advances in its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile
programs were not stopped by 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 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.

In the near term, analysts worry Kim will abandon his
three-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 to ease tension on the Peninsula.

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


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