The DPRK’s Decrepit Economy, Pyongyang’s Achilles Heel
Author: Dick K. Nanto
For a country ever on the brink of mass starvation, the DPRK in 2008 appears to have inched yet closer to an economic abyss that may generate famine and starvation not seen since the mid-1990s. This comes at a time when the Six-Party Talks have reached what could be a turning point. In the talks, North Korea’s decrepit economy serves as a primary source of leverage that parties in the talks are wielding to move decision-making forward. ‘Great Leader’ Kim Jong-il, who ever portrays himself as invincible, may find that the economy is his Achilles heel.
(Pages 1 – 28)
Redefining ROK’s Strategic Posture in the Twenty-First Century
Author: Choong Nam Kim
The Republic of Korea (ROK) requires a new strategic vision and a workable new strategy befitting a changing security environment and changing national interests. Having been preoccupied with an engagement policy toward Pyongyang, South Korea seems to be lacking a long-term strategic vision beyond the peninsula. In other words, its national strategy is not well defined. Moreover, the South Korean people are sharply divided over their country’s security and foreign policies. During the Cold War, the Korean Peninsula was a key battleground between the Soviet Union and the United States. At the 38th parallel, two triangular alliances confronted one another—to the north, Moscow and Beijing siding with Pyongyang, to the south Washington and Tokyo siding with Seoul. South Korea’s foreign policy during that period reflected the containment policy of the U.S., following Washington’s security measures.
(Pages 29 – 69)
Re-Aligning the Military and Political Dimensions of the ROK-US Alliance: The Possibilities
Author: Patrick M. Morgan
In a nutshell, the ROK-US alliance faces the following problem: for some time the military and political dimensions of the alliance have been out of alignment on adjusting to the international and national security issues that concern the alliance. In many ways the alliance should be doing well. After all, over time North Korea has become steadily weaker as an international actor, while those who explicitly oppose many elements of its foreign and domestic policies have grown in number, including all its immediate neighbors. The promising opening to the outside world that the North undertook after signing the Agreed Framework has been sharply devalued and it is back to being quite isolated. The economic recovery the North had begun earlier in this decade seems to have slowed.
(Pages 70 – 97)
Disabling “Nuclear” North Korea for Regional Balance and Security
Author: Young Whan Kihl
The reality of a rising ‘nuclear’ North Korea, with its test-firing of seven missiles on July 5, 2006, and underground testing of a nuclear device on October 9, was met by worldwide condemnation and emergency sessions of the United Nations Security Council. The world had not yet gotten accustomed to the two UN Security Council resolutions (1695 and 1718), imposing limited economic sanctions on North Korea, when it was surprised once again by the breakthrough announcement of February 13, 2007: the Six-Party Talks Accord on ‘Disabling the North Korean nuclear program.
(Pages 98 – 130)
The Terrorism Issue in U.S. Policy Toward North Korea
Author: Larry A. Niksch
The issue of North Korea’s inclusion on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism has been in U.S.-North Korean diplomacy since 2000, but three stages are of particular importance: the first in 2000 in Clinton Administration-North Korean negotiations; the second during the 2003-2004 Six-Party negotiations over the North Korean nuclear issue; and the third in the diplomacy around the Six-Party nuclear agreement of February 2007. Until 2000, the core element of U.S.-North Korean diplomacy was the Agreed Framework, which Washington and Pyongyang signed in October 1994. It dealt primarily with North Korea’s nuclear program, but U.S. obligations specified in the Agreed Framework included economic and diplomatic measures.
(Pages 131 – 163)
China’s Foreign Policy toward North Korea – A U.S. Perspective
Author: Robert Sutter
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the demise of East-West and Sino-Soviet competition for influence in the Korean peninsula after the Cold War, Beijing adjusted Chinese relations to take advantage of economic and other opportunities with South Korea, while sustaining a leading international position in relations with North Korea. In contrast with steady Chinese efforts to use post-Cold War conditions in order to advance China’s relations with South Korea, Chinese foreign policy toward North Korea has been characterized by reactive moves in response to abrupt and often provocative behavior of North Korea, and, to a lesser degree, the United States.
(Pages 164 – 181)
