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Updated January 10, 2023

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).
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), implemented
in 2012. In 2021, South Korea was the United States'
seventh-largest trading partner (goods and services trade
combined), and the United States was South Korea's
second-largest trading partner, behind the People's
Republic of China (PRC, or China). Over the past decade,
congressional interest in U.S.-ROK relations often has
focused on U.S.-ROK cooperation over North Korea and
more recently Indo-Pacific policies, the U.S.-ROK alliance,
and U.S.-South Korea trade and investment flows.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, in office since May
2022, is seeking to transform South Korea into a global
pivotal state by raising its profile beyond the Korean
Peninsula, working more expansively with fellow
democracies, and becoming a more active partner in the
United States' Indo-Pacific strategy. Yoon issued South
Korea's first-ever Indo-Pacific strategy in December 2022.
President Joseph Biden and Yoon have capitalized on
greater U.S.-ROK strategic alignment by forging closer
cooperation on North Korea policy through military
exercises and expanding trilateral cooperation with Japan.
They also have made efforts to integrate South Korean
companies with U.S. efforts to promote technological
development and supply chain resiliency. South Korea is
one of 14 negotiating partners in the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific
Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) initiative, a
proposed new trade and economic arrangement. Despite the
growing alignment, South Korea's approach to China is less
confrontational than the United States', and U.S.-ROK
economic friction has increased due to South Korean
complaints about the electronic vehicle (EV) provisions in
the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA, P.L. 117-169).
North Korea Pol       y Coordnaion
Historically, North Korea has been the dominant strategic
concern in the U.S.-South Korea relationship. The Biden
Administration in 2021 stated it will pursue a calibrated,
practical approach that is open to and will explore
diplomacy with North Korea to eventually achieve the
complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, even
as U.S. and international sanctions remain in place. The
Administration appears to envision offering some sanctions
relief in exchange for steps toward denuclearization.
Administration officials say they have reached out to North

Korea, offering to meet without preconditions, and that
the ball is in [Pyongyang's] court. Since the collapse of
former President Donald Trump's diplomatic outreach with
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2019, however,
Pyongyang largely has ignored U.S. and South Korean
outreach and has severed all overt inter-Korean
communication channels for extended periods.
Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-launched more
than 60 missiles, including multiple tests of intercontinental
ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which are capable of delivering
nuclear warheads. Satellite imagery publicized in 2022
appeared to indicate repairs and enhancements at North
Korea's nuclear weapons test site, raising concerns that it
will conduct its seventh nuclear weapons test, which would
be the first since September 2017. In 2022, Kim pledged to
exponentially increase North Korea's nuclear weapons
stockpile, said he will never denuclearize, and
promulgated a new law expanding the conditions under
which North Korea would use nuclear weapons to include
non-nuclear attacks and situations that threaten the regime's
survival. Pyongyang continues to evade sanctions and
conduct illicit activities to raise funds. Inter-Korean
tensions have increased since the summer of 2022. In
December 2022, for instance, the DPRK flew drones across
the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas.
Whereas the previous ROK government emphasized
diplomacy with North Korea, Yoon and Biden have
emphasized deterrence. They have reactivated high-level
consultations on extended deterrence under the U.S. nuclear
umbrella and expanded the scope and scale of combined
military exercises (including with Japan), which President
Trump and Yoon's predecessor, Moon Jae-in, had curtailed
since 2018. The United States has increased deployments of
strategic assets such as stealth fighter jets, introduced new
unilateral sanctions designations, and proposed new DPRK
sanctions measures in the United Nations. (China and
Russia vetoed the attempt.) Alongside these steps, the two
allies have offered Pyongyang unconditional humanitarian
assistance, and Yoon has pledged to provide large-scale
economic assistance if North Korea embarks on a genuine
and substantive process for denuclearization.
US-South Korea Security Issues
The Biden Administration has worked to repair the alliance,
which had been strained under Trump, prompting the 115th
and 116th Congresses to impose conditions (via the
FY2019, FY2020, and FY2021 National Defense
Authorization Acts) on Trump's power to withdraw U.S.
troops from South Korea. In February 2021, the Biden
Administration concluded a cost-sharing negotiation with
South Korea that boosted South Korea's contribution to
alliance costs by 13.9%. The ROK traditionally has paid for
about 50% (over $800 million annually) of the total non-

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