Increasing Distrust of the USA in South Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this article is two-pronged. First, it seeks to identify the factors that seem to lower trust in the USA among South Koreans. These factors weaken the traditionally solid Korea-USA alliance and have led a US expert to call South Korea a “runaway ally.” Second, this article empirically tests various explanations of trust using a nationwide survey of South Koreans conducted in 2005. This article employs multiple regression analysis to test the hypothesized relationships. The results indicate that the following factors have a statistically significant impact on trust in the USA: ideological anti-Americanism, short- and long-term factors related to the activities of Americans or the USA, national self-esteem, and American pop culture.