U.S. Embassy Seoul, South Korea
The United States and Korea’s Joseon Dynasty established diplomatic relations under the 1882 Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, and the first U.S. diplomatic envoy arrived in Korea in 1883. U.S.-Korea relations continued until 1905 when Japan assumed direction over Korean foreign affairs. In 1910, Japan began a 35-year period of colonial rule over Korea. Following Japan’s surrender in 1945, at the end of World War II, the Korean Peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel into two occupation zones, with the United States in the South and the Soviet Union in the North. Initial hopes for a unified, independent Korea were not realized, and in 1948 two separate nations were established—the Republic of Korea in the South, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the North. In 1949, the United States established diplomatic relations with the Republic of Korea.
Over the past several decades, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has achieved a remarkably high level of economic growth and is now the United States’ sixth-largest goods trading partner with a trillion-dollar economy. Major U.S. firms have long been leading investors, while the ROK’s top firms have made significant investments in the United States. There are large-scale flows of manufactured goods, agricultural products, services, and technology between the two countries. ROK foreign direct investment in the United States has nearly doubled since 2011 from $19.7 billion to $38.8 billion in 2016, making the ROK the second largest Asian source of foreign direct investment into the United States. During President Trump’s 2017 visit to the country, ROK companies announced plans to begin a series of projects in the United States over the next four years valued at $17.3 billion. The Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) entered into force on March 15, 2012, underscoring the depth of bilateral trade ties. In March 2018, the United States and the Republic of Korea reached an agreement on the renegotiation of the KORUS FTA.
The United States and Korea’s Joseon Dynasty established diplomatic relations under the 1882 Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, and the first U.S. diplomatic envoy arrived in Korea in 1883. U.S.-Korea relations continued until 1905, when Japan assumed direction over Korean foreign affairs. In 1910, Japan began a 35-year period of colonial rule over Korea. Following Japan’s surrender in 1945, signaling the end of World War II, division of the Korean peninsula at the 38th parallel marked the beginning of Soviet and U.S. trusteeship over the North and South, respectively. On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea. Led by the United States, a United Nations coalition of 16 countries undertook the defense of South Korea. Following China’s entry into the war on behalf of North Korea later that year, a stalemate ensued for the final 2 years of the conflict until an armistice was concluded on July 27, 1953. A peace treaty has never been signed. In 1953, at the conclusion of the Korean War, the United States the ROK signed a Mutual Defense Treaty, the foundation of a comprehensive alliance that endures today. “To this day, North Korea is one of the few countries without official diplomatic relations with the United States.”
Today, the United States embassy is in Seoul with a consulate in Busan.
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Source:
United States, Department of State, Office of the Historian and Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
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