Study: S. Koreans increasingly wary toward U.S.

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — South Koreans have a “deep ambivalence” about the presence of U.S. military forces in their country and how it affects relations with North Korea, a new RAND Corporation study has found.

The nonprofit think tank’s report, released earlier this month, included two public opinion polls covering 1,710 South Koreans. Most South Koreans said they believe U.S. forces are important for security but also believe the 37,000 U.S. servicemembers stationed in their country may halt unification efforts with North Korea, the study said. And younger, better-educated respondents said they believe America poses a greater threat than North Korea.

A pivotal incident was the acquittal of two U.S. soldiers in November 2002 in a fatal armored-vehicle accident that killed two South Korean schoolgirls. That incident caused a 16 percent decline in those holding favorable views, down to 37 percent, the report found.

Favorable attitudes also took a hit in February 2002, when an American speed skater won an Olympic gold medal after a South Korean skater was disqualified, RAND researchers found.

Attitudes recovered slightly after the United States began its military campaign against Iraq in March 2003, the study found. But two of three South Koreans characterized their country’s relationship with the United States as “pretty bad” or “very bad.”

Sizable percentages of educated South Koreans hold an unfavorable view of the United States — a sentiment that could increase as the percentage of older people with favorable attitudes declines, the report stated. Those in their 20s and with a college education said the United States poses a greater threat to their country than North Korea, while those with only a junior high school education and are older than age 50 said the opposite.

“If the current trends continue, public attitudes toward the United States could worsen in the years ahead,” the study said.

Participants in the RAND report, “Ambivalent Allies? A study of South Korean attitudes toward the U.S.,” included two former U.S. ambassadors to Seoul: Stephen Bosworth, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy dean, and Richard L. “Dixie” Walker, ambassador-in-residence at the Walker Institute of International Studies of the University of South Carolina. Members also included other prominent South Korea scholars.

The report recommended ways to improve the relationship, including:

• Persuade South Koreans that American interests go beyond North Korea and that the United States has a long-term interest in a stable Northeast Asia.

• Develop a public diplomacy strategy focusing on legitimate grievances while not trying to change ideological anti-American views.

• Explore intelligence sharing and harmonize views of threats and responses.

• Determine whether South Korea’s education system propagates anti-American attitudes and how the South Korea media shapes views.