# South Korea **South Korea** (the Republic of Korea, ROK) is a U.S. treaty ally of about 51 million people, a leading memory-chip and shipbuilding power, and host to roughly 28,500 American troops. It matters to the KB for three reasons. Its December 2024 martial-law crisis is the clearest recent case of a democracy prosecuting a sitting president's attempted self-coup. Its trade relationship has twice been rewritten under Trump's tariff threats. And in 2026 it became the ally on the receiving end of Trump's outreach to [[North Korea]]. Its influence operations aimed at the United States are on [[South Korean Influence]]. ## Background The ROK was founded in 1948 under Syngman Rhee, survived the [[Korean War]], and was ruled by military strongmen — most consequentially [[Park Chung-hee]] (1961–79) — until the democratic transition of 1987. Rhee and Taiwan's [[Chiang Kai-shek]] were the moving forces behind the Asian People's Anti-Communist League, founded in 1954, the forerunner of the [[World Anti-Communist League]]. The [[Unification Church]], founded in Seoul in 1954, later built a U.S. media and political network around The Washington Times. ## The martial-law crisis and its prosecutions | Date | Event | |---|---| | 3 Dec 2024 | President [[Yoon Suk Yeol]] declares [[Martial Law]] and sends troops to the National Assembly; lawmakers vote it down and it lasts about six hours | | 14 Dec 2024 | National Assembly impeaches Yoon, 204 of 300 votes | | 4 Apr 2025 | Constitutional Court unanimously upholds the impeachment, removing him from office | | 3 Jun 2025 | [[Lee Jae-myung]] of the Democratic Party wins the snap presidential election | | Jan 2026 | Yoon sentenced to five years for obstructing his own arrest and related charges | | 19 Feb 2026 | Seoul Central District Court convicts Yoon of leading an insurrection; life imprisonment (prosecutors sought death) | | Apr 2026 | Appeals court raises the obstruction sentence to seven years | | May 2026 | Appeals court upholds former prime minister Han Duck-soo's insurrection-related conviction and cuts his term to 15 years | | 9 Jul 2026 | Supreme Court upholds Yoon's seven-year obstruction sentence | Yoon has appealed the life sentence. The Seoul High Court began preliminary hearings in April 2026, and no appellate ruling had been found as of 6 October 2026. He faced eight criminal trials in total. ## Lee Jae-myung's government Lee took office on 4 June 2025. In the 3 June 2026 local elections his Democratic Party won 12 of 16 mayoral and gubernatorial races, up from four, but failed to take Seoul, where conservative incumbent Oh Se-hoon held on. The People Power Party, Yoon's former party, was cut back to its southeastern base. ## Economy and the US link *Readings as of 10 October 2026. The 2018–2026 history of the trade deal is in the next section, Trade and tariffs.* | Measure | Reading | |---|---| | Nominal GDP | $1.87 trillion (2025); $1.93 trillion projected for 2026 (IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2026) | | Real growth | 1.0% in 2025 (Korea JoongAng Daily, April 2026); the IMF projects 1.9% for 2026 (April 2026 WEO) | | Prices | Consumer prices +2.9% year on year in September 2026, down from 3.1% in August; core +2.8%. Petroleum products were up 14.8% (Ministry of Data and Statistics, 2 October 2026) | | Policy rate | Bank of Korea base rate 3.00% after a 25-basis-point hike on 27 August 2026, the second in a row; the first, on 16 July 2026, took it from 2.50% to 2.75%, the first increase since 2023 (Korea Times; investingLive; Trading Economics) | | US goods trade, 2025 | US exports $69.1B, imports $125.5B, deficit $56.5B (USTR, Census data) | | US goods trade, 2026 | Deficit of $9.4B in August 2026 (Census) | | What the US buys | Capital goods ($43.9B) and vehicles and parts ($42.5B) led 2025 imports (BEA data via USAFacts) | | US Treasuries held | $131.5B (July 2026, Treasury TIC data) | | US tariff on most goods | The higher of 12.5% or the normal MFN rate under the Section 301 forced-labor action (since 24 July 2026) | | Autos | [[Section 232]], excluded from the forced-labor action; the October 2025 deal set Korea's auto rate at 15%, matching Japan's | **Cars and capital goods.** Korea's exports to the US are concentrated in two categories, machinery and electronics on one side and cars and parts on the other, and those two made up about two-thirds of 2025 US goods imports from Korea. That is why the auto rate has been the core of every round of bargaining. Section 232 tariffs survived [[Learning Resources v. Trump]], so the auto terms outlived the IEEPA structure that the rest of the deal rested on (Malay Mail, March 2026). **What changed in 2026.** The Supreme Court ruling removed the legal basis of the negotiated 15% reciprocal rate. The [[Section 301 Forced Labor Tariffs]] that replaced it on 24 July 2026 put Korea in the same tier as Japan: the duty tops up a product's normal rate to 12.5% rather than stacking on top of it. Seoul kept its side anyway. The investment law passed on 12 March 2026 set up a state corporation to vet and select projects under the $350 billion pledge with input from both governments (AP, March 2026). No record has been found that Trump's January 2026 threat to restore a 25% rate was carried out. **Rates going up, not down.** The Bank of Korea raised its base rate in July and again on 27 August 2026, to 3.00%, citing "persistent inflationary pressures amid Middle East uncertainties" (Korea Times). The [[Iran War 2026]] oil shock and a weak won pushed consumer inflation above 3% over the summer. The August vote was 6–1. The [[Federal Reserve]] moved the same way three weeks later, with its own hike on 16 September 2026. **The Hyundai raid.** On 4 September 2025, ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents detained 475 people at the Hyundai Motor Group–LG Energy Solution battery plant under construction in Ellabell, Georgia. More than 300 of them were South Korean nationals. ICE called it "the largest single-site enforcement operation" in its history (NPR; CBS News). Seoul chartered a plane to bring the workers home. **Why it matters here.** The raid exposed the collision between two of the administration's own priorities: bringing foreign factories to the US, and maximal immigration enforcement through [[ICE]]. The factories Korea promised to build under the $350 billion pledge need the specialist crews who were detained at Ellabell. For the right, Korea is both a model of the tariff-for-investment bargain and evidence that enforcement can undercut it. ## Trade and tariffs Trump's first-term trade representative [[Robert Lighthizer]] renegotiated the KORUS free-trade agreement in 2018, winning a steel export quota and an extension of the 25% U.S. tariff on Korean pickup trucks. The second Trump administration went much further: - **July 2025:** a framework deal set a 15% tariff on South Korean goods, down from a threatened 25%, in exchange for a $350 billion investment pledge. - **29 October 2025 (Gyeongju):** the deal was finalized. $200 billion would be paid in cash, capped at $20 billion a year, and $150 billion would go to shipbuilding cooperation. Auto tariffs were set at 15%. - **September 2025:** U.S. immigration agents detained more than 300 South Korean workers in a raid on the Hyundai–LG battery plant in Georgia, a shock to Korean investors. - **January 2026:** Trump threatened to raise tariffs back to 25%, accusing Seoul's legislature of stalling the deal. - **12 March 2026:** the National Assembly passed the investment law 226–8. ## The alliance in 2026 The FY2026 defense authorization bill, which cleared Congress in December 2025, restricts cutting U.S. Forces Korea below 28,500 troops. In August 2026 Trump ordered the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises scaled back while seeking a summit with [[Kim Jong-un]]. Lee said the cut came "without prior notice" (one source). The KB reads this as the same alliance-reliability problem seen in the Canada trade rupture. See [[South Korean Influence]]. ## See Also - [[South Korean Influence]] · [[North Korea]] · [[Kim Jong-un]] - [[Yoon Suk Yeol]] · [[Lee Jae-myung]] · [[Park Chung-hee]] - [[Martial Law]] · [[Korean War]] · [[World Anti-Communist League]] · [[Unification Church]] - [[Robert Lighthizer]] · [[Japan]] · [[Countries Hub]] · [[Global Economy Hub]]