This will be good new for Korea spouses of U.S. servicemen. From the Stars and Stripes:

Visiting America could get easier for spouses of servicemembers in South Korea if President Bush$)C!/s proposed change to U.S. visa rules is approved.

On Saturday, Bush issued a statement supporting further expansion of the Visa Waiver Program, including putting the Republic of Korea on that list.
Currently all visitors from South Korea must apply for a visa before traveling to the United States, regardless of their intentions. Tourists from Japan, one of the countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program, can circumvent that paperwork if they are visiting America for fewer than 90 days.

State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus said Korea-born spouses of troops applying for citizenship or work permits would not be affected by any changes in the waiver program.

!0But, if they were just visiting as tourists for less than three months, they wouldn!/t have to get a visa for those trips anymore,!1 she said. Korea-born girlfriends and boyfriends of troops would have the same opportunities.

Full Story Here.

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The reason Korea doesn't give U.S. citizens 6 months with no visa required, as they do to Canadians, is precisely because of the restrictions imposed on Koreans with the U.S. visas.
If the U.S. law eases up, so will our visas here. It appears ridiculous, and an insult to Korea, that Japanese, a former enemy to both Korea and the U.S.,
don't need a visa to enter the U.S., and the Koreans do!

Joe,

I may get slammed by some Koreans for saying this, but I feel Japan is a better ally than South Korea to the U.S. Also, the economic ties between the U.S. and Japan are much stronger. Another reason is the prostitution problems in America with Koreans. For these three reasons alone I would say is enough for less restrictions on Japan than South Korea.

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Consider this your first "Slam" from me, then. We were attacked at Pearl Harbor. We fought and won the surrender, but never the hearts and minds of the people. The Japanese economy grew from ashes to where it is on our assistance. The Japanese attitude toward America will forever be tainted by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We wrote their constitution, which still says, "We forever renounce war". There have been attempts to change that recently. When the time comes, it will. Do you believe that, given the opportunity and incentive, the Japanese will not ally with, Oh, I don't know, perhaps China?
I'm sure you don't think a small country like Japan would stick with us against, say, an Asian Continental Union, like China and Russia?
Korea was conquered and enslaved, and a part of Japan for 36 years. The
Korean economy has grown a lot, but has yet to completely overcome losing 36 years of potential growth, thanks to the original "Evil Empire", Japan. Korea has had growing pains, but is moving ahead. I think The U.S. should give Korean Visas at least equal treatment with Japan.

Don't get me wrong, I think Korea should get equal status. I do disagree with you that Japan would ally with China over the U.S. Japan is in bed with the U.S. both militarily and economically. They pay 95% of our basing cost while Korea pays less than 50%, even though over 100,000 U.S. casualties were inflicted on the U.S. during the Korean War and we Nuked Japan during WWII. Korea continues to complain while the Japanese continue to be a strong ally. Just look at the Japanese Defense Minister stepping down because he stated, "The U.S. had no choice but to drop a nuke on Japan."

South Korea continues to have unfair trade practices with the U.S. and slowly moving towards China as a bigger brother. If I remember correctly, South Korea exports more goods to China than to the U.S. (or soon will).

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Yes, Japan will stick with us and continue to grow stronger and stronger. It may be many years before China and Russia join forces. I hope it is many years. But eventually, inevitably, we will have to leave Asia to the Asians. In the meantime, unless the Chinese Defense Minister gets his way, we will continue to enjoy the good life here for some years to come.

According to the US Department of State website the criteria for a country to qualify are as follows:

Governments provide reciprocal visa-free travel for U.S. citizens (90 days for tourism or business purposes);
Governments issue secure machine-readable passports that satisfy internationally accepted standards;
Governments certify that they have a program to incorporate biometric identifiers into their passports in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization standards;
Governments certify that they report the theft of blank passports on a timely basis to the U.S. Government, and do so in practice;
The country must have a very low nonimmigrant refusal rate
The incidence of nationals of the country traveling as nonimmigrant visitors who are denied admission, withdraw their application, and violate the terms of a VWP admission is less than two percent of the total number of nonimmigrant nationals traveling to the U.S. during the previous fiscal year.

• Security of a country’s passport application, production and delivery processes;
• Security of passports and other documents used to demonstrate identity and citizenship, and incidence of fraud or misuse involving such documents;
• Nationality and citizenship laws, and application of such laws;
• Existence of security and law enforcement threats in the country (terrorist activities, organized crime, money laundering, human and drug trafficking, etc.), and efforts to address such threats;
• Immigration controls and alien smuggling activities in the country, and efforts to address such threats;
• Stability of the government politically and economically;
• Degree of cooperation with the U.S. and other international partners on law enforcement issues, including extradition.

According to the US Department of State website the criteria for a country to qualify are as follows:

Governments provide reciprocal visa-free travel for U.S. citizens (90 days for tourism or business purposes);
Governments issue secure machine-readable passports that satisfy internationally accepted standards;
Governments certify that they have a program to incorporate biometric identifiers into their passports in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization standards;
Governments certify that they report the theft of blank passports on a timely basis to the U.S. Government, and do so in practice;
The country must have a very low nonimmigrant refusal rate
The incidence of nationals of the country traveling as nonimmigrant visitors who are denied admission, withdraw their application, and violate the terms of a VWP admission is less than two percent of the total number of nonimmigrant nationals traveling to the U.S. during the previous fiscal year.

• Security of a country’s passport application, production and delivery processes;
• Security of passports and other documents used to demonstrate identity and citizenship, and incidence of fraud or misuse involving such documents;
• Nationality and citizenship laws, and application of such laws;
• Existence of security and law enforcement threats in the country (terrorist activities, organized crime, money laundering, human and drug trafficking, etc.), and efforts to address such threats;
• Immigration controls and alien smuggling activities in the country, and efforts to address such threats;
• Stability of the government politically and economically;
• Degree of cooperation with the U.S. and other international partners on law enforcement issues, including extradition.