Author(s) Dennis Patterson and Jangsup Choi Keywords diplomacy, international trade, Official Development Assistance, South Korea, economic development, development assistance policy, country partnership strategies Abstract South Korea is the only nation to become an important donor nation after being a recipient of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for several decades. In 2010, it became a member of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, and while it has continued to use its experience as a former ODA recipient to inform its distribution practices, it also has evolved its ODA policies in response to changes in international norms and the imperatives associated with being a DACmember nation. We know that, while policies may change, actual ODA disbursements—which nations are selected as recipients and receive ODA in what amounts—may lag or even remain unchanged. In this paper, we use the case of South Korea to determine how actual ODA disbursements change in response to policy changes. To accomplish this, we use a selection model to conduct a statistical analysis of South Korea’s ODA disbursements using dyadic data from 1987 to 2016. Our results indicate that, while there has been continuity in terms of which nations receive South Korean ODA, there were also notable changes in its disbursements. Specifically, the ODA policy changes the South Korean government enacted did result in an altered profile of nations that were targeted by South Korea as ODA recipients. Author(s) Bio Dennis Patterson received his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, in Political Science. He has been conducting research in Japan and South Korea of over 30 years. He has over 40 published articles, and, among other volumes, he is the author of The Japan that Never Was (SUNY Press, 2014) and Diplomacy, Trade, and South Korea’s Rise to International Influence (Lexington Books, 2019). He is currently working on his sixth book, which is a study of South Korea?Japan Relations and their importance for peace and stability in East Asia. He has been a professor at Texas Tech University for sixteen years, serving as Department Chair for eight, and has previously taught at Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Jangsup Choi received his PhD from Texas Tech University and is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University-Commerce. His research interests involve political behavior, campaigns and elections, and Asian politics, with special attention to the decision-making process and political outcomes largely influenced by institutional arrangements. His recent publications have been appeared on Politics and Religion, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Islam and Christian?Muslim Relations, Korea Journal, Korea Observer, and The Korean Journal of Area Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jea.2019.17