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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.

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