> as a South Korean, America having such an opinion basically means my country is forced to "choose side", hurting our economy and destabilizing military balance in East Asia.
What the heck are you talking about? South Korea has already chosen a side. Your country runs military exercises jointly with the USA and Japan.
Americans spilled blood and gave their lives to defend South Korea after North Korea (backed by China and Soviet Russia) invaded on 6/25/1950. The US sent hundreds of thousands of troops to defend South Korea, and currently has 30k troops stationed in South Korea. Our two countries have agreed that the USA would take military command if war were to break out.
There are extreme human rights abuses and health deficiencies on the north side of the 38th Parallel, but the south side has grown to be economically powerful and extremely prosperous despite being a fairly poor country at the outset of the war. Your country and mine maintain a free trade agreement, and have traded 100 billion dollars worth of goods this year.
I personally bought a Samsung phone and a Samsung TV, so I'm about $3k of that.
Don't forget who your friends are!