The North Korean nuclear weapons program poses a challenge to stability in Northeast Asia. The United States' foreign policy with North Korea takes a hard-line position, and cannot solve this problem unilaterally and must rely on support from the other countries in the region. Solving this nuclear issue is only one piece of the stability challenge in this region. North Korea's nuclear program gained international attention when it signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1985, threatened to withdraw in 1993, withdrew in 2003, and stated it has a nuclear weapons capability in 2005. The Six-Party Talks were initiated with the goal of stopping and dismantling North Korea's entire nuclear weapons program, and has had limited success. Previous negotiations between North Korea and the United States have ended with one party, usually North Korea, failing to uphold its part of the agreement. The Six-Party Talks may be successful, but may take decades. It comes down to the question, is the United States pursuing the best foreign policy toward North Korea? This thesis examines North Korea's nuclear program history, how it perceives itself and others, reviews the current U.S. policy, recommends a flexible policy, and proposes a method of implementation.
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