This report discusses the accelerated vehicle retirement (AVR) programs initiated in 2009 by the United States, Japan, South Korea, and other industrial nations (commonly known in the U.S. as the "cash for clunkers" program). The U.S. program began in June 2009, when President Obama signed the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act. The report discusses how these various AVR programs affected the automobile industries in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, specifically. Neither Japan nor South Korea imports large numbers of foreign vehicles, a circumstance not much altered by AVR program implementation.

This report contains two main parts: a section describing recent events and a longer background section on key elements of the U.S.-South Korea relationship. The end of the report provides a list of CRS products on South Korea and North Korea.

Letter to Cecile from her father US involvement in India and Korea, a conference in Houston he attended, his wife's slow improvement, and the opening of a Lipton Tea plant.

Script from the WBAP-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, relating a news story.

Interview with Vernon Rutherford, a Buck Sergeant in the Korean War. He answers question about his life during the war and his experiences abroad.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Cornelius D. Wiens. Wiens grew up in Montana and Kansas and was drafted into the Army in 1944. After completing training, he departed about the Sea Snipe for the Philippines. His first landing was at Leyte, where he remained fighting for three months. He describes coming to land on the small landing craft. From Leyte he went to Negros, then Masbate, and finally Mindanao. He describes the Japanese soldiers who were unwilling to surrender. After Japan's surrender he also spent time in Korea as a radio operator.