ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on relations with North Korea and the United States (US). Korean foreign relations, formal and informal, have historically been responses to regional Eastern or Western power and political influences. Korea was part of the Sino-centric world order from the second century before Christ, when China established a military administration in Korea. In 1982, with considerable acclaim and ceremony, Korea and the US celebrated a centennial of diplomatic relations. Residual consciousness of Korea is reinforced by ubiquitous color television sets, microwave ovens, shoes and footwear, textiles, and toys. Korean views of the US have been, by contrast, both more naive and more sophisticated, more sustained, more permeating, and yet more unrealistic. The growing Korean public realization that the US is not an altruistic cargo cult deity, together with recognition of the real mistakes in US foreign policy and US self-interest, increases the level, depth, and articulation of anti-US sentiment.
