SR0613 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0613 LRB103 35400 MST 65465 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The United States and Korea first established diplomatic relations on May 22, 1882 with the signing of the Treaty of Peace, Amiry, Commerce and Navigation; following Korea's occupation by Japan from 1905 until the end of World War II, the U.S. formally reestablished its diplomatic relationship with the Republic of Korea (R.O.K.) on March 25, 1949, and the two nations signed their Mutual Defense Treaty on October 1, 1953; and

WHEREAS, In 2023, the U.S.-R.O.K. alliance is marking 70 years since the cessation of hostilities in the Korean War and the signing of the Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953, which remains in place today and, by its terms, has neither formally ended the Korean War nor constituted a permanent settlement of peace on the Korean Peninsula; and

WHEREAS, The U.S.-R.O.K. alliance is also rooted in mutual trust, shared sacrifice, common values, economic interests, and generations of people-to-people ties that provide a foundation for one of the strongest, most interoperable, and enduring bilateral alliances in the world; and

WHEREAS, The U.S.-R.O.K. alliance was forged in shared sacrifice, as 1,789,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines served during the Korean War, of whom 36,574 paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives in defense of the R.O.K., including 7,174 soldiers in the Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army; more than 7,500 members of the U.S. Armed Forces remain classified by the Department of Defense as missing in action; casualties of the R.O.K. numbered more than 217,000 soldiers killed and more than 291,000 wounded during the war; and

WHEREAS, The American and Korean people share deeply rooted values of defending freedom, championing economic and social opportunity and inclusion, upholding human rights, and respecting the rule of law; now; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize the 70th anniversary of the United States-Republic of Korea alliance and celebrate the strong cultural and economic ties between the two nations and the special bonds forged between people of the State of Illinois and the Republic of Korea.