Posts Tagged ‘inter-Korean relations’
North Korea: Danger and Opportunity for Park Geun-hye’s Presidency
South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s speech to the Joint Session of the United States Congress will be a great opportunity to signal that the Korean peninsula is headed toward a new era of inter-Korean cooperation, test the rough waters with policies for a breakthrough on the North Korea policy conundrum and dispel much of the jitteriness that [...]
Taking Stock of North Korean Rhetoric
It’s now almost impossible to imagine North Korea without a barrage of bellicose rhetoric mainly consisting of die-hard nuclear threats. Over the past few weeks, we have been inundated with shrill terms such as zooktang (sledge-hammer blows), beolcho (killing people like cutting the weeds at the ancestor’s graves), “venomous swish of [...]
Frienemies: The North’s Nuclear Test Was Bad Enough, The South Shouldn’t Make It Worse
With its most recent nuclear test, North Korea claims to have detonated a warhead small enough to arm its arsenal of ballistic missiles, including the Nodong. Some of my colleagues doubt the North Koreans, but I am inclined to take them at their word. The prospect that Pyongyang may deploy a small arsenal of nuclear-armed missiles naturally raises [...]
Kim Jong Un’s Foreign Policy Record: The Juche Revolution Continues
During his first year in power, Kim Jong Un maintained the strategic foreign policy line he inherited from his father without making any major adjustments. In a nutshell, that approach seeks to alter the regional balance of power in North Korea's favor, expand its resource base, and gain international recognition by building up strategic arms [...]
Sympathy for the Devil ― How Best to Deal with NK
This article originally appeared as a guest opinion piece on Korea Times on December 26, 2012. The original article can be found here. North Korea has successfully, sort of, launched a long-range missile. We are outraged. We want more sanctions; we want to pressure them till they say uncle or collapse. We wonder how China could be so [...]
Living with Two Nations Under One Roof
I am presenting this small piece on the following assumptions: I do not believe that the unification of Korea will be possible in the near future. Nor do I believe that it would be desirable if its cost were high in terms of human sacrifice. The two societies have already evolved so apart from one another that it will not be possible for them to [...]
