U.S.-North Korean Relations: From the Agreed Framework to the Six-party Talks
Author: Larry Niksch
U.S.-North Korean relations since the end of the Cold War have been dominated by the issue of North Korea’s nuclear program, specifically by evidence and a U.S. assessment that North Korea has used its nuclear program to attempt to produce nuclear weapons. From the time of a major policy speech in Seoul by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in early 1991 to the present, successive U.S. administrations have had a priority policy objective of eliminating the nuclear program. The objective expanded after 1998 to include North Korean missiles and chemical and biological weapons. The United States has attempted three different diplomatic initiatives with this aim: the negotiations that led to the signing of the U.S.-North Korean Agreed Framework in October 1994; the Perry initiative of 1999-2000; and the six-party talks of 2003-2004.
(Pages 1 – 26)
Dealing with Pyongyang: In Search of a More Effective Strategy
Author: C. Kenneth Quinones
Double failure does not yield success. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and US President George Bush claim they want a “peaceful diplomatic solution” to the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear woes, but their strategies have failed to achieve their avowed goals. More effective strategies are urgently needed. But first we need to figure out what is really impeding progress on both sides. Kim Jong Il claims he is defending his domain from Washington’s “hostile policy” and wants “friendly relations” with the United States. But his Foreign Ministry finally confirmed on February 10, 2005, that North Korea had broken numerous previous promises and built “a nuclear deterrence capability.”
(Pages 27 – 50)
Advancing Democracy for South Korea: Beyond Electoral Politics and Presidential Impeachment
Author: Young Whan Kihl
South Korea is a trailblazer on the path toward liberal democracy in Asia. Following the 1987 democratic “opening” and transition, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has moved on toward democratic consolidation with a series of drastic reform measures. It moved on to “deepening” democracy and ambitious institution building. As a result, Korea is today recognized internationally as both a thriving democracy and a vibrant capitalist economy. Freedom House Country Ratings continue to place South Korea in the ranking of a liberal democracy, with an average score of 2.0. The ratings for 2005 gave South Korea an average of 1.5 for the two categories of “political rights” and “civil liberties” on a “freedom scale” of 1 to 7, where 1 represents the highest degree of freedom and 7 the lowest.
(Pages 51 – 70)
Protest and Democratic Consolidation: A Korean Pespective
Author: Jose Aleman
Scenes of workers or other citizens clashing with riot police are a common occurrence in South Korea. While this may come as no surprise to most adult Koreans, such collective mobilization challenges established theories of democratization and democratic consolidation that strongly associate the latter with moderation of social protests. Unlike the expectation that the more a political structure accommodates participation, the less people protest, protests have persisted in South Korea even after the country passed several tests of successful democratization. To be fair, violent and illegal protests have declined. But no important shifts in strategies, nor significant innovations in protest repertoires, seem to have taken place.
(Pages 71 – 90)
Political Implications of E-voting in Korea
Author: Hyeon-Woo Lee
The development of Information Communication Technology (ICT) has had substantial effects, not only on everyday life but also on public sphere. It is possible through ICT to realize new concepts like electronic government and electronic democracy. In the meantime, a considerable number of discussions have been conducted on E-voting. The advocates who agree with E-voting strongly insist on accepting it for several reasons, including an increase of the voting rate along with reduced costs, greater accuracy, and the enhanced efficiency of ballot counting. On the other hand, those who oppose the adoption of Evoting hold strongly that there should be care in adopting an E-voting system. They cite possible security and mechanical troubles.
(Pages 91 – 106)
Understanding Anti-Americanism among South Korean College Students
Author: Haesook Chae
During a half-century long alliance between South Korea and the United States, South Koreans have been, for the most part, staunchly pro-American. This began to change in the early 1980s, especially in the aftermath of the Kwangju Incident. Since then, anti-Americanism has ebbed and flowed in South Korea. In light of this, the recent resurgence of anti-Americanism could arguably be dismissed as merely the latest wave in a familiar pattern, and, thus, one that will eventually fade away, just as it has in the past. However, this current manifestation of anti-Americanism is unique because it coincides with an extraordinary set of international events: the 9/11 attack, the revelation of North Korea’s clandestine nuclear weapons program, the US’s “hard-line” policy towards North Korea, the US decision to relocate its troops away from the DMZ and Seoul, and finally, the stunning recent announcement by the US to reduce its troops in South Korea by a third.
(Pages 107 – 126)
ROK’s Nuclear Experiments: A Successful Case of Alliance Management
Author: Steven Kim
The startling disclosure by the South Korean (Republic of Korea: ROK) government on September 2, 2004, that a small group of its scientists had conducted secret nuclear experiments in 1982 and 2000 raised immediate concerns about possible implications for the six-party talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, including relations among three principals in the talks—South Korea, North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: DPRK), and the United States. The first concern was that the revelations might put a strain on ROK and US relations, stemming from their differing views over the disposition of the ROK’s nuclear issue by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog; and second was that the DPRK might take advantage of the incident to pursue its own self-interested agenda.
(Pages 127 – 142)
The South Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement: Implications for Regional Integration in East Asia
Authors: Youngshik Bong and Heoun Joo Jung
Regionalism has surfaced as one of the focal points in international relations in the new millennium. There has been a dramatic increase in the creation of new regional trading agreements (RTAs) in the past decade. By early 2004, the number of RTAs submitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has doubled in the past decade. More than 273 agreements have been negotiated, 190 of which have come into force. Compared to the European Union (EU), East Asia has long been characterized by the paucity of strong institutional, regional cooperation. However, a new wave of regional groupings has swept the region recently. East Asian states have demonstrated their new enthusiasm by creating regional free trade agreements (FTAs).
(Pages 143 – 165)
