ABSTRACT
Among the irritants in the bilateral relationship between the Dnited States of America and the Republic of Korea, the Dnited States-Republic of Korea Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) has both periodically and recently loomed large. Ever since the end of the Korean War, this arrangement has provided a basis for stationing a fairly large contingent of U.S. military personnel on bases in South Korea, both along the 38th parallel and elsewhere, to preserve the uneasy peace between North and South Korea and to serve large American strategic interests on the Korean Peninsula and in the larger Northeast Asian security sphere.
