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South Korea Foreign Policy
United States
One of the most salient elements of the Chun regime was its
close ties with the Reagan administration. This was in sharp
contrast to the strained Washington-Seoul relationship under
presidents Carter and Park, when the United States government had
criticized Park's dictatorial policies and attempted to implement
Carter's campaign pledge to withdraw United States ground combat
troops from South Korea. The relationship also had been strained
because of the 1977 Koreagate scandal.
Reagan provided unmitigated support to Chun and to South
Korea's security. Chun was Reagan's first official guest in the
White House. Reagan reaffirmed his support of Chun by visiting
Seoul in November 1983.
While Reagan's support considerably buttressed Chun's stature
in domestic politics and the international arena, it also fueled
the subculture of anti-Americanism. The opposition forces in
South Korea, suffering from the government's stringent
suppression, denounced United States' support for the Chun regime
as a callous disregard for human rights and questioned the United
States' motives in Korea. The past image of the United States as
a staunch supporter of democracy in South Korea was replaced with
that of defender of its own interests, a policy impervious to
injustices committed in South Korea. This view was accentuated by
the fact that Chun's White House visit occurred only several
months after the Martial Law Command had brutally suppressed the
student uprising in Kwangju. (It was later revealed by Richard V.
Allen, National Security Advisor to President Reagan, that Chun's
visit was part of Washington's diplomatic effort to spare the
life of Kim Dae Jung who had been sentenced to death.) This
atmosphere led some of South Korea's radical elements to take
extreme measures, such as arson committed at the United States
Information Service building in Pusan in March 1982 and the
occupation of the United States Information Service Library in
Seoul in May 1985. Students who demonstrated against the Chun
government invariably carried anti-American slogans.
Data as of June 1990
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