ABSTRACT
Since the Vietnam War ground to its end, the focal point of Asian politics has shifted to the Korean peninsula. In many ways, the situation of the Korean peninsula in the seventies has moved in a direction contrary to that experienced by Asia as a whole. The advent of the Carter administration has dealt a severe shock to the South Korean government. Not only has President Carter oriented his diplomacy around the problem of human rights and in that connection called for democratization and an end to oppression in South Korea, but he also has taken steps to carry out his election promise to withdraw US troops from the Korean peninsula. The passage of a United Nations resolution supporting the North Korean position in 1975 and the recognition of North Korea as a participant at the Nonaligned Nations Foreign Ministerial Conference the same year in Peru indicate that its status is also on the rise in external affairs.
