For years the supposed volatility of the Kim regime has been a key driver of tensions between the U.S. and North Korea and between North Korea and its neighbors. The Kim regime’s reputation for volatility is well earned, but the focus on North Korea overlooks the fact that there are two volatile states on the Korean peninsula. South Korea is a successful, multi-party, democratic state which poses no threat to its neighbors or the international system, but volatility is part of the South Korean political landscape, especially in regards to U.S.-R.O.K. relations. Since 2000, Koreans favorability rating for the United States has ranged from 46% (among the lowest for any state outside the Middle East) to 84% (among the highest rates ever recorded.) Anti-American protests in Korea following flash-points in U.S.-ROK relations, such as the Yangju Highway Incident or the “Beef Wars” of 2008, have been massive and occasionally violent. Despite these events being well-known the current American Administration does not seem to consider how its approach to the problem of North Korea may alienate a significant portion of South Koreans with potentially devastating effects for long-term American interests in the region. This presentation will examine the history of anti-Americanism in Korea and then explain how the bellicosity of the current American administration could actually create an opening for North Korea to achieve one of its signature policy objects: the removal of American forces from the peninsula.
