North Korea and the United States: Learning How to Wage Peace in the Twenty First Century

摘要

While the relationship between the United States and North Korea has been effectively stalled for sixty years, this could be changing. A diplomatic and economic client of the Soviet Empire, North Korea was severely affected by the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 (1,2). Set adrift from the Soviet bloc, suffering from almost a decade of famine, North Korea is being forced to alter the way in which it interacts with the rest of the world, or face total collapse. There is potential for great improvement in the United States/North Korean relationship, but not without significant risk. The Kim Jong Il regime has developed and maintained a strong military, and one of its only significant exports is weaponry: ballistic missiles, missile technology, and the technology for building chemical, biological, and likely nuclear weapons (3). It is the potential for use and sale of weapons of mass destruction that makes North Korea of vital strategic interest to the United States. This essay will first examine the strategic interests represented by North Korea; secondly, the means currently employed by the United States to achieve the desired ends. Lastly, recommendations for a potential future course of action, and the possible outcomes, will be discussed. In the final analysis, the most likely outcome for the Korean peninsula is reunification. It remains to be seen if this can be accomplished without further violence.