U.S.–Rok Alliance

Security pact based on the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK). Originally offered as enticement to then Korean president Syngman Rhee to accept the armistice ending the Korean War, the U.S.–Republic of Korea alliance has had a major impact on the Republic of Korea. Under this security umbrella, South Korea has become one of the most dynamic economies in the world and has developed a thriving democratic government. At present, some 37,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed there.

Cold War Alliance

On June 25, 1950, the opening shots of the Korean War were fired when North Korean forces stormed across the 38th parallel, sweeping South Korean troops and hastily assembled U.S. reinforcements down the Korean peninsula to a perimeter around the city of Pusan. The tide of the communist offensive turned, however, following a daring amphibious landing at Inchon led by General Douglas MacArthur in September of the same year. Although truce talks between UN forces and opposing North Korean and Chinese forces began at Panmunjon in July 1951, war would rage for two more years. The signing of an armistice occurred two years later, but a formal peace treaty has yet to be signed. For the past 50 years, South Korea has enjoyed an uneasy peace guaranteed by the U.S.–ROK alliance.

The Korean War took place against the backdrop of the Cold War, which arrayed the United States and its allies against the Soviet Union and fellow communist nations. Under the security guarantee of the United States, South Korea experienced a dramatic political and economic transformation. From a backward agrarian economy under military dictatorship and later authoritarian rule, South Korea grew into a democracy with the third-largest economy in Asia exporting a wide variety of manufactured goods to the United States and other nations. During this period, Korea received large amounts of technical and financial support from the U.S. and its allies, most notably Japan. This aid was aimed at preventing the spread of communism in east Asia and strengthening South Korea as a key ally of the United States in the Cold War struggle.

The long-standing alliance was further strengthened by developments during the Vietnam War. South Korean economic growth was spurred by wartime U.S. defense contracts to Korean industrial conglomerates called chaebol. In addition, South Korea sent more than 300,000 troops to Vietnam over the course of the war. Cold War peace on the Korean peninsula was occasionally tested by confrontations such as the capture of the USS Pueblo by North Korea in 1968. In the 1976 Poplar Tree Incident, two U.S. Army officers were killed by axe-wielding North Korean troops, Despite these incidents, South Korea has prospered economically and, since 1988, has enjoyed democratic elections as a result of the stability created by the alliance.

The rise of democratic government has seen the emergence of an active, increasingly strong political left, exemplified by the 2002 election of human-rights lawyer Roh Moo-hyun as president of South Korea. Roh stated during his campaign that the South might remain neutral in the event of war between North Korea and the United States. His rise to the presidency is seen by many as a reflection of the political views of the 386 generation (in their 30s, went to college in the ′80s, born in the ′60s), who tend to be less trustful of the United States, more conciliatory toward North Korea, and more focused on ties with Korea's other Asian neighbors.

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