Since all the hostages are now freed, their was a price to pay. And SK.Korea lived up to the price the Talibans had asked for, otherwise more lives would've been taken. Due to the circumstance of a deal that was successful for both sides, the S.Korean military and everything else for that matter will pull out by end of this year.

While other hostages from other countries such as Germany are still in taliban possesion, the S.Korean government has dropped out of the coalition/alliance.

How will this effect the relationship between 2 friends(S.Korea & U.S.A)?

For me this will effect their position with U.S.A, although buisness will still be as usual, we are seeing an eventual North and South reunification.Due to the current actions taken by the S.Korean government bowing out of the mission with their allies.

The non-combat troops were already going to pull-out, Korea still has thousands of soldiers in Iraq. What other hostages are there? source?

Uh, the U.S doesn't care. As long as SK doesn't hurt their oil interests, they won't get mad.

I don't think much will change. The US is still allies with France after all.

The US economy can't run without oil. Bush is a businessman. I don't like most of this policies. However, he's simply being a businessman. I doubt that Bill Clinton would have reacted differently. After 9/11 he would have attacked Afghanistan. The Iraq embargo probably would have continued (which killed a lot of Iraqi children and made Bin Laden angry). What's worse? A war or continued sanctions which kill kids??

Anyways, business is business. US acts in it's own interests. So does SK and all other nations.

And that says a lot. the majority of the American people will say that they hate the French, and the French will reciprocate the converse sentiment. However, they are still allies and should another country invade either one, they would be fighting together.

What does the future hold for Korean-American relations? It depends entirely on the Korean people and the choices they make.

It seems like the US and SK are entering into the beginning of a new ice age.

The last decades have shown that SK is able to stand on its own and develop into an industrialized nation with a stunningly growing economy and stable politics, and that mostly without the help of their western "protector". This new confidence shows e.g. in official criticism towards the US in the SK hostage drama, as well as the recent ban of US beef from being imported to the country due to health reasons.

I heard South Koreans saying that they feel much closer to their Northern neighbor than they do to the Americans, although they are still officially in war. This might seem as ungratefulness by Americans, but perhaps they should think about if the US military presence is still necessary in today's geopolitical setting. Especially now that the summit between SK and NK is coming up, it might be a good point in time to debate about this matter seriously with the SK government.

Signs have turned and geopolitics is changing. If the Americans are as fast thinking and acting as they want everyone to believe, they should react quickly. Otherwise the danger of the ice age to endure many decades is imminent.

nothing is going to change, koreans are making the US mucho dollars!

U mean US as "us" , r u American?

That's right man, nothing is going to change good relation between SK & US as long as US don't back stab SK.

The US didn't fight in iraq to get oil. it is possible they fought to insure that oil trades would continue but i highly doubt that. US DID defend kuwait because they give us a ton of oil. i feel sure that if we didnt get oil from them, and their was no potential. we wouldn't have defended them. those two wars are different, just in the same place...

i am american so please take this from my perspective.
i heard that a lot of money was given to the taliban in exchange for the people. while the public reason was that korea would leave iraq.
i havent confirmed the truths but probably the subject has dropped by now on the news.
i will feel bad that terrorists have more money to fund their evil sysyem, i just hope they are losing people.
i think that those people shouldnt have got what was coming.
i mean, singing Christian songs in a muslim place (thats what i have heard) is beyond stupid.
iiiiiii

many of my korean friends believe those people were completely stupid, one sent them an email saying something like, "these people violated your religion. they stepped into what they are in now. so please consider their rudeness in your actions".


i agree, i dont think relations will change... us is about to get a new president, for better for worse, and south korea is also (isnt it?) unless our or your new pres has something against each other i think things will stay the same.

any opinions?

Even SK relation with US turn sour, I don't think US will list SK as trouble maker.

At the moment, SK is one of most democratic nation on Asia right now and upto 70% of Korean citizens supports good US relation.

A good will gesture:

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2007/...9005000320.HTML

http://rokdrop.com/2007/10/10/gangwha-battle-flag-returned/

It would be stupid if they didn't. It's not just oil, but there's that terrorism thing and the fact that Iraq is located in an important area. Then there's various vested interests within the plutocracy. Still killing off thousands of people and causing lifetimes of problems but it's "better them than us" as usual.

more freindly becoz next korean goverment

The French feel threatened by American culture. They must mock the USA to prove thier French. They're similar to Canada. They don't want to fight America; They just want to maintain the independent attitude.

Often people will ridicule outsiders to prove thier loyality to the tribe.

"the tribe?" you definately sound like one of those stormfront types

No, I could care less about the "tribe". I'm talking about others.

It's ridiculous to think Bush would have helped the Koreans. How can Koreans hold that against average Americans?