The Free Trade Agreement negotiated by the United States and South Korea this week reflects their troubled alliance in which relations could either be revitalized or unravel over the next six months.

The trade agreement, or FTA, must be approved by the US Congress and Korea's National Assembly and has already generated substantial opposition in both legislatures. The FTA is intended to lower tariffs and other barriers to a trade that totaled $78.3 billion last year, with a $13.3 surplus in South Korea's favor.

Korean farmers have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest the wider opening of their market. Korean automobile companies fear competition from US makers. The FTA is supposed to ensure that American investors can invest in Korea on a par with Koreans, which Americans who have dealt with Korea contend Korean bureaucrats will block.

On the American side, the automobile companies and their allies in Congress argue that Koreans will have an unfair advantage because of easier access to the US market. The pharmaceutical industry says it won little under the agreement. And rice growers got nothing due to the political opposition of Korean rice farmers.

On a wider scale, political opposition in Korea seemed greater than that in America, although President Roh Moo Hyun's approval rating went up a few points after the agreement was signed. Two members of the National Assembly have gone on a hunger strike. Said Representative Chun Jung-bae: "President Roh apparently doesn't consider the loss of economic sovereignty problematic."

In the same vein, Korean newspapers have grumbled that U.S. negotiators bullied Korean officials and that this was another instance of US domination of Korea. The Korea Times asserted last week that the FTA left Korea vulnerable "to attacks from mighty and well-experienced U.S. traders and lawyers."

Add differences between the Bush Administration in Washington and President Roh's government in Seoul over dealing with North Korea, the US demanding a hard line while President Roh seeks to accommodate the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il. Polls show an anti-American streak among younger Koreans who want reconciliation with Pyongyang.

Perhaps no place does American frustration with South Korea show up so much as among the US military services. Many officers with experience in Korea assert that the US should reduce its troops in Korea or perhaps withdraw all but a token force. One who considers that US forces are almost held hostage in Korea said plaintively: "Let my people go."

US officers point to running quarrels with the Koreans over issues such as command of US and Korean forces, sharing the cost of US forces in Korea, US access to Korean training areas, moving US forces to new locations, and cleaning up US bases that have been vacated. A particular sticking point: President Roh insists on vetoing US deployments out of Korea to conflicts elsewhere.

Those US forces are needed elsewhere, notably Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, most American officers believe that South Korea's forces are capable of defending their country against North Korea with minimal help from the U.S. That is particularly true since the shambles of the North
Korean economy has taken its toll on the readiness of North Korea's armed forces.

A small but indicative incident reflecting the American attitude: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates came to the Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaiiin late March to attend the assumption of command by Admiral Timothy Keating. In his remarks at the ceremony, Gates said the Asia-Pacific region is home to "some of America's oldest and strongest allies."

He said a "great many partnerships--old and new--have grown considerably stronger in recent years. The restoration of military relations with Indonesia comes to mind, as does the strengthening of our long-standing ties with Japan and Australia." Gates did not mention South Korea, a rare omission for an American political leader.

This turbulence may come to a turning point as the South Koreans prepare to elect a new president in December, President Roh being barred constitutionally from succeeding himself. Despite the flood of Anti-Americanism on the surface in Korea, many Koreans and Americans who know Korea assert that there is a large if silent segment of Korean society that wants to retain their alliance with the US.

Those Koreans are expected to go public over the next few months and into the presidential campaign season in the fall. Korea's future relations with America will most likely be a critical issue that will be debated-and then voted on-when the Koreans elect a new president.