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South Korea: Background and U.S. Relations (CRS Report for Congress)

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Release Date Aug. 13, 2014
Report Number IF00047
Report Type In Focus
Source Agency Congressional Research Service
Summary:

Since late 2008, relations between the United States and South Korea (known officially as the Republic of Korea, or ROK) arguably have been at their most robust since the formation of the U.S.-ROK alliance in 1953. Under South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who was inaugurated in February 2013, Seoul and Washington have tightly coordinated their North Korea policies amidst Pyongyang’s various provocations, charm offensives, and internal unrest. Over the past two years, Washington and Seoul have updated and expanded alliance cooperation. South Korea also took the first steps toward a possible entry into the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement negotiations, which would build on the 2011 United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). In 2013, the Obama and Park governments agreed to—and Congress in 2014 supported—a two-year extension of a civilian nuclear energy cooperation agreement, now set to expire in 2016.