Despite the predictions of many obituary writers, North Korea is still around. It was supposed to collapse with the Eastern European communist regimes, but it didn’t. It was supposed to crumble during the great famine of the mid-1990s, but it didn’t. The hard-line policies of the George W. Bush administration were supposed to do the trick, but they didn’t. The North Korean economy is in lousy shape, the ruling elite is a gerontocracy, and several thousand North Korean citizens vote with their feet every year. But the government in Pyongyang soldiers on.
Kim Jong Il’s Visit to Russia: Just More Mixed Messages?
Russia expressed optimism about its pipeline project from Russia to North Korea to South Korea.
Review: No Exit
North Korea is of perennial security concern to both its neighbors and the United States. In late 2010, satellite data indicated that North Korea possessed a uranium enrichment facility, and now a potential third nuclear test is underway.No Exit: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons and International Security is one of the few books to date in the English language that provides a detailed, beyond-the-Beltway account of North Korea’s history, leadership, and nuclear development.
Korean Americans and Allies to Participate in “From War to Peace in East Asia,” Events on Korean War
On July 27, 2011 scholars from the Institute for Policy Studies, South Korea, and the Washington Peace Center will hold a special discussion on the status of the Korean War Armistice and why a peace treaty to end the Korean War matters today in the context of the current military issues facing East Asia and the overall need for peacebuilding in this region.
Exodus to North Korea Revisited
The emotions felt by those leaving Japan were varied and often complex. Many expressed joy and hope at the prospect of a new life in North Korea – even though the vast majority came originally from the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, and were going to a place they had never seen before. Some took a more somber view – traveling without high expectations, but at least in the belief that a future in North Korea would be more secure than their life in Japan, where they had been deprived of citizenship and had no assured residence rights, very limited access to welfare and (in most cases) few educational or employment opportunities.
North Korea Ready to Deal, But West Wants It to Go All In
To the West, nuclear talks with North Korea have to be all or nothing.
How the U.S. is like North Korea
Much of North Korea’s population is starving, yet its government pours money into missile and nuclear programs. Such behavior seems to be the height of irrationality. But North Korea is only following the international community’s – especially America’s – example.
How to Break the Deadlock With North Korea
Intervention in Libya, which forfeited its nuclear weapons, has made North Korea more convinced than ever that it needs to hold on to its own nukes.
Contested Waters – Contested Texts: Storm over Korea’s West Sea
This is the story of a text, which was briefly posted at The Asia Pacific Journal on 6 February, and almost immediately (within hours) withdrawn. The author was Kim Man-bok, who from November 2006 to January 2008 was Director of the South Korean National Intelligence Service (Korean CIA) under the Government of President Roh Moo-hyun. His text was entitled “Let Us Turn Korea’s West Sea (the Sea of Dispute) into a Sea of Peace and Prosperity.”
Negotiating with Evil
Given the title of this week’s World Beat, perhaps you expected an essay on North Korea or another vilified U.S. adversary and violator of all human decency.
Actually, I was referring to Jon Kyl. Those who dismiss the value of negotiating with North Korea insist that the country makes unreasonable demands, never has any intention of compromising, and violates any agreement that it ultimately signs. Funny, this sounds a lot like the hard-line Republicans in the last Congress.