South Korean foreign policy decision-making is increasingly independent from its long-time benefactor: the United States. Surrounded on all sides by powers that have controlled its strategically valuable position, the young power has been backed by the US for the last seventy years. South Korean leadership during the first half of that period was autocratic and repressive. Post-war leaders focused on growing international trade and strength of industry locally. Despite nearly four decades of horrific treatment by the Japanese, modern South Korea has emerged as a democratic and economic powerhouse. Yet it is still a border flashpoint for Cold War competition.
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