In August 1991, South Korea joined the United Nations along with North Korea and has remained active in most UN specialized agencies and many international forums. The Republic of Korea also hosted major international events such as the 1988 Summer Olympics, the 2002 World Cup Soccer Tournament (co-hosted with Japan), and the 2002 Second Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies.

The Republic of Korea maintains diplomatic relations with more than 170 countries and a broad network of trading relationships. The United States and Korea are allied by the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty. Korea and Japan coordinate closely on numerous issues. This includes consultations with the United States on North Korea policy.

Economic considerations have a high priority in Korean foreign policy. The R.O.K. seeks to build on its economic accomplishments to increase its regional and global role. It is a founding member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Korean Peninsula: Reunification and Recent Developments
Since the 1950-53 Korean War, relations between North and South Korea have been strained. Official contact did not occur until in 1971, beginning with Red Cross contacts and family reunification projects. However, divergent positions on the process of reunification, North Korean weapons programs, and South Korea's tumultuous domestic politics contributed to a cycle of warming and cooling of relations between North and South.

Relations improved following the 1997 election of Kim Dae-jung. His "Sunshine Policy" of engagement with North Korea, coupled with a $500 million payment to the D.P.R.K., set the stage for the historic June 2000 inter-Korean summit. President Kim was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for the policy, but the prize was somewhat tarnished by revelations of the massive payoff to North Korea that immediately preceded the summit.

Relations have again become tense following the October 2002 North Korean admission of a covert highly-enriched uranium program. Following this admission, the United States, along with the People's Republic of China, proposed multilateral talks among the concerned parties to deal with this issue. Under pressure from China and its neighbors, the D.P.R.K. agreed to meet with China and the United States in April 2003 and again in August 2003 in six-party talks that added the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Russia to the table. In October 2003, President Bush announced his willingness to document multilateral security assurances with the D.P.R.K., leading to discussion of a second round of six-party talks. On February 25, 2004, all six parties sat down in Beijing for second round of talks aimed at the complete, verifiable, and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.