Analysis: South Korea is a key regional US ally and home to tens of thousands of American troops
The astonishing political instability now coursing through South Korea will reverberate far beyond its borders, including in Washington.
South Korea and the United States have a decades-old mutual defense treaty, which means both must come to the aid of the other if they are ever attacked.
Key US military installations dot South Korea.
Among them is the US Army’s Camp Humphreys, the largest US military installation outside of the United States with a population of more than 41,000 US service members, civilian workers, contractors and family members.
Alongside Japan and the Philippines, which also boast a mutual defense treaty with the US, South Korea is part of a trio of regional powers that have helped to bolster American power in both Asia and the Pacific for decades.
Advocates argue that a significant US troop presence in the Korean Peninsula is crucial to deter any potential attack from North Korea as Kim Jong Un’s regime continues to build its nuclear arsenal and as a way of bolstering the US presence in the region to counter China’s aggression.
While tensions between North and South Korea have ebbed and flowed in recent decades, the relationship has become particularly fraught since Yoon took office, with both sides resorting to increasingly threatening rhetoric and actions
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