Abstract
The relationship between the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK), or South Korea, has been described as a longtime “blood alliance.” Korea has shared core values such as democracy and liberal economy with the United States, and they also share strategic interests. To help contain communist expansion from North Korea, more than 1.7 million U.S. soldiers1 fought in the Korean War (1950–53). With this memory, South Korea participated in the Vietnam War on the anticommunist side. These experiences helped make relations between the ROK and the United States one of the most successful alliances in the Cold War era.
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Notes
James D. Morrow, “Alliances and Asymmetry: An Alternative to the Capability Model of Alliances,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 36, No. 4 (November 1991), 910.
Han-wool Chung and Nae-young Lee, “Anti-U.S. Public Opinion and Korea-U.S. Alliance: Opinion Polls in December, 2002 and June 2003,” National Strategy, Vol. 80, No. 3 (2003), 57–82 (Korean).
Gallup Korea, “Opinion on U.S. Military Presence,” September 2003. All the polls conducted by Gallup Korea are available at http://panel.gallup.co.kr/svcdb/main.asp (Korean; accessed November 2009).
Minister for Trade of the Republic of Korea, “Korea’s Economic Policy and Its Implications in the Region,” speech, Microsoft Government Leaders Forum (April 18, 2007, Beijing), available at http://www.mofat.go.kr/english/press/speech/trade/index.jsp (accessed October 30, 2009); “All in all, the KORUS FTA will promote not only our bilateral economic relations, but also further strengthen the more-than-50-year alliance between our two countries.”
Hae In Shin, “Civic Groups Escalate Anti-FTA Protest,” The Korea Herald, April 4, 2007); at a rally against the conclusion of the KORUS FTA, Oh Jong-ryeol, cochairman of the Korean Alliance against the Korea-U.S. FTA, a coalition of activists, said, “We ask for decampment of the Roh government, which made negotiations in favor of the United States, not Korea.”
Gallup Korea, “Assessment of KOR-US FTA,” April 2007.
Ha-won Jung, “Cutler Tells Korea: Bring on the Beef,” JoongAng Daily, October 17, 2007, available at http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2881616 (accessed October 30, 2009); Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler said, “The resolution of the issue of U.S.(beef) imports to Korea would help (the congressional ratification of the free trade agreement).”
Gallup Korea, “Opinion on the Necessity of Renegotiation on U.S. Beef,” May 2008.
When Korean lawmakers in the National Assembly discussed the ratification of the free trade agreement, some made attempts to pressure the government into renegotiation aimed at changing beef import conditions to become more favorable to Korea. Dae-woong Jin, “Beef Dominates hearing on FTA,” The Korea Herald, May 14, 2008.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea, “Signing of the MOU on Korea’s Joining of the Visa Waiver Program,” Press Release, April 18, 2008, available at http://www.mofat.go.kr/english/press/pressrelease/index.jsp (accessed November 11, 2009).
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Gallup Korea, “40 Items That Koreans Like Most,” pp. 17–18, June 17, 2004, available at http://panel.gallup.co.kr/report/main.asp (accessed November 20, 2009).
Won-ki Choi, “I Like the U.S. but I Hate Bush,” Joongang Daily, October 14, 2004, available at http://article.joins.com/article/article.asp?total_id=400921 (accessed November 20, 2009).
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For more information about anti-U.S. struggles in 1980s, see Federal Research Division, South Korea; A Country Study (4th ed), Library of Congress, 1997, p. 24; available at http://books.google.com/books?id=_adMWevoEq0C&hl=ko&source=gbs_navlinks_s (accessed November 21, 2009).
For details on the situation on June 10, see Sang-ho Song, “Tension Escalates as One Million Gather for Vigils,” The Korea Herald, June 10, 2008.
Tae-hyun Kim, “The New Wave of Anti-Americanism in South Korea: Its Political Psychological Roots and Implications for Foreign Policy,” Korea and International Politics, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring 2004), pp. 20–30.
About Mike Johanns’s comment, see Michigan Farmer, “Ag Secretary Disappointed with South Korea,” December 6, 2006, available at http://michiganfarmer.com/story.aspx/ag/secretary/disappointed/with/south/korea/8/974 (accessed November 25, 2009).
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© 2011 William A. Rugh
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Huh, YJ. (2011). The Staying Power of Personal Contact in South Korean Public Diplomacy. In: Rugh, W.A. (eds) The Practice of Public Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230118652_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230118652_7
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