Anti-American sentiment in Korea began with the earliest contact between the two nations and continued after the division of Korea and Korean War. According to an October 2025 KStatResearch poll, 56% of South Koreans had a favorable view of the United States, while 40% had a negative view.
One particular focus of such sentiment has focused on the presence and behavior of American military personnel (USFK) on the peninsula. There have been a number of high-profile cases of American soldiers being involved in violence against Korean people, with an example being the 2002 Yangju highway incident, as well as the 2008 Camp Humphreys expansion controversy. The ongoing U.S. military presence in South Korea, especially at Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul, remains a contentious issue. While protests have arisen over specific incidents, they may be reflective of deeper historical, anti-Western sentiment. Anti-American sentiment has also increased during the second presidency of Donald Trump due to doubts about the reliability of the United States as an ally.
History
Pre-Korean War
After the Japanese defeat in World War II, U.S. and Soviet forces entered the Korean Peninsula and established separate military administrations in the south and north respectively. The right-wing faction in the South, led by Syngman Rhee, defined the trusteeship plan of the Moscow Conference as "recolonization by the Soviets" and began pushing for the immediate establishment of a sovereign government, excluding the left-wing faction in the North that mostly supported the plan. Ultimately, a general election supervised by the UN, which was blocked in the Soviet-controlled north, was held and enshrined the division of Korea. After the boycotts, strikes, and multiple rebellions by left-wing in the South against the general election all failed, most of the remaining factions fled to North Korea to escape persecution.
While the early days of the Syngman Rhee's administration with former Korean independence activists could not be described as distinctly pro-American when compared to the Korea Democratic Party (KDP), the largest opposition party which included right-wing landowners and former pro-Japanese collaborators, the context of the Cold War blurred their differences under the motto of anti-communism, thereby solidifying the ideological division of Korea as 'communism versus anti-communism'.
Korean War
No Gun Ri massacre
The No Gun Ri Massacre occurred on July 26–29, 1950, early in the Korean War, when South Korean refugees were killed by the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (and a U.S. air attack) at a railroad bridge near the village of No Gun Ri (revised Romanization Nogeun-ri), southeast of Seoul. In 2005, the South Korean government certified the names of 163 dead or missing (mostly women, children and old men) and 55 wounded. It said many other victims' names were not reported. Survivors generally estimated 400 dead. The U.S. Army cites the number of casualties as "unknown." Along with the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, it was one of the largest single massacres of civilians by U.S. land forces in the 20th century.
The civilian killings gained widespread attention when the Associated Press published articles in 1999 in which 7th Cavalry veterans corroborated survivors' accounts, articles that later won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. 7th Cavalry veteran Joe Jackman states, "there was kids out there, it didn't matter what it was, eight to 80, blind, crippled or crazy, they shot 'em all." The AP also uncovered warfront orders to fire on refugees, given out of fear of enemy North Korean infiltration. After years of rejecting claims by survivors, the Pentagon conducted an investigation and, in 2001, acknowledged the killings, but referred to the three-day event as "an unfortunate tragedy inherent to war and not a deliberate killing." The U.S. rejected survivors' demands for an apology and compensation. Inconsistencies with the Pentagon's investigation led to Korean War veteran Pete McCloskey (who had been brought in to advise on the report) state, "the government will always lie about embarrassing matters."
South Korean investigators disagreed with Pentagon findings, saying they believed 7th Cavalry troops were ordered to fire on the refugees.Ministry of Defense, Republic of Korea. The Report of the Findings on the No Gun Ri Incident. Seoul, South Korea. January 2001, p. 176. The survivors' group called the U.S. report a "whitewash." Additional archival documents later emerged showing U.S. commanders ordering the shooting of refugees during this period, declassified documents found but not disclosed by Pentagon investigators. Among them was a report by the U.S. ambassador in South Korea in July 1950 that the U.S. military had adopted a theater-wide policy of firing on approaching refugee groups. Despite demands, the U.S. investigation was not reopened.
Prompted by the exposure of No Gun Ri, survivors of similar alleged incidents in 1950–1951 filed reports with the Seoul government. In 2008 an investigative commission said more than 200 cases of alleged large-scale civilian killings by the U.S. military had been registered, mostly air attacks. More documents detailing refugee 'kill' orders were unearthed at the U.S. national archives and point to the widespread targeting of refugees by commanders well after No Gun Ri massacre. In August 1950 there were orders detailing that refugees crossing the Naktong River be shot. Later in the same month, General Gay ordered artillery units to target civilians on the battlefield. In January 1951, the U.S. 8th Army was detailing all units in Korea that refugees be attacked with all available fire including bombing. In August 1950, 80 civilians are reported to have been killed while seeking sanctuary in a shrine by the village of Kokaan-Ri, near Masan in South Korea. Other survivors recall 400 civilians killed by U.S. naval artillery on the beaches near the port of Pohang in September 1950.
Sinchon Massacre
The North Korean government claims that U.S. forces massacred 35,000 people at Sinchon between 17 October and 7 December 1950. South Korean sources estimate a significantly lower death toll and dispute any American involvement. The majority of historians outside of North Korea believe that this massacre was orchestrated by local right-wing (mostly Christian) civilians or related militias,Bruce Cummings, War and Television, 1994 and U.S. intervention was absent or at most peripheral.
Geneva Conference of 1954
The armistice at the end of the Korean War required that a political conference be pursued where the question of a unified Korea would be addressed. Despite many proposals for independent national elections and a unified, democratic, independent Korea no declaration for a unified Korea was adopted. Some participants and analysts blame the U.S. for obstructing efforts towards unification.
Military prostitution
U.S. military patronage of South Korean prostitutes has been a source of controversy for decades.
During the early 1990s, former victims of forced prostitution became a symbol of Anti-American nationalism. Former military prostitutes are seeking compensation and apologies as they claim to have been the biggest sacrifice for the South Korea-United States alliance. Some South Korean women report being encouraged to provide sexual services for American soldiers. As a result of this practice, some women were killed by soldiers, including Yun Geum-i in 1992. American military police and South Korean officials regularly raided clubs looking for women who were thought to be spreading venereal diseases, locking them up under guard in so-called monkey houses with barred windows. There, the prostitutes were forced to take medications until they were well.
American Cultural Center arson
On December 9, 1980, in Gwangju, arsonists protesting the Gwangju massacre, burned the American Cultural Center, blaming the purported American role in Gwangju Uprising.
On March 12, 1982, arsonists set fire to the American Cultural Center in Busan. They killed one and injured several others. Moon Pu-shik and Kim Hyon-jang were sentenced to death but later commuted to life sentences and then to 20 years.Anniversary of Arson Attack on Pusan "American Cultural-Service" Observed (KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY)ANTI-U.S. SENTIMENT IS SEEN IN KOREA The New York Times March 28, 19822 Sentenced to Death In Korean Arson Case The New York Times August 11, 1982CHUN SPARES 2 DOOMED IN KOREAN ARSON CASE New York Times. March 16, 1983SEOUL DECLARES AN AMNESTY, BUT NOT FOR EVERYONE New York Times. February 27, 1988
On November 20, 1982, arsonists burned the American Cultural Center in Gwangju for the second time. In September 1983, Daegu's the bombing of Daegu American Cultural Center. In May 1985 in Seoul, American Cultural Center was seized.
On April 23, 2013, in Daegu, two anti-U.S. arsonists mistakenly attacked a cram school called the American Cultural Center.Charlotte Meredith 'Korean terrorists target US but mistakenly fire bomb a school' Express April 23, 2013Terrorists In Korea Target Americans, Mistakenly Bomb Themselves Terrorists in Korea target Americans, but mistakenly fire bomb a Korean own English academy NAIJ 24 April 2013
2000s incidents
Yangju highway incident
On June 13, 2002, a U.S. military vehicle fatally injured two 14-year-old South Korean girls, Shin Hyo-sun (신효순) and Shim Mi-seon (심미선), who were walking along a street in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province. The incident provoked anti-American sentiment in South Korea when a U.S military court found the soldiers involved, who were sent back to the United States immediately after the decision, not guilty. This prompted hundreds of thousands of South Koreans to protest against the U.S Army's continued presence.
PSY's anti-American performance
In 2002, PSY and some pop stars participated in an anti-American concert in response to the incident. PSY lifted up a model of a U.S. M2 Bradley armoured vehicle and smashed it, and rapped the song "Dear American". The song was written by a South Korean band to condemn the United States and its military for its role in the Iraq War. The anti-American lyrics saying, "Kill those fucking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives and those who ordered them to torture," and "Kill them all slowly and painfully," as well as "daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers." In December 2012, he issued an apology to the U.S. Military.
Apolo Ohno 2002 Winter Olympics controversy
In Salt Lake City, Utah, Apolo Anton Ohno emerged as a popular athlete among U.S. fans for reportedly charming them with his cheerful attitude and laid-back style. He became the face of short track speed skating in the U.S., which was a relatively new and unknown sport at the time, and carried the medal hopes of America in that sport. Ohno medaled in two events, although there was some controversy associated with the results.