Testing North Korea: The Next Stage in U.S. and ROK Policy

Testing North Korea: The Next Stage in U.S. and ROK Policy
Author: Morton I. Abramowitz
Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations
Total Pages: 82
Release: 2001-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0876092814

This task force, co-chaired by Morton I. Abramowitz and James T. Laney, argues that successful implementation of the Agreed Framework between the United States and North Korea, which froze Pyongyang's known nuclear program in exchange for two light-water reactors and other economic benefits, faces considerable challenges.

Testing North Korea

Testing North Korea
Author: Morton Abramowitz
Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations Press
Total Pages: 88
Release: 2001
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

This Independent Task Force Report addresses the challenges of balancing diplomacy and deterrence in this next critical stage on the Korean peninsula.

U.S. Policy Toward North Korea

U.S. Policy Toward North Korea
Author: Council on Foreign Relations
Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations
Total Pages: 40
Release: 1999
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780876092637

The Korean peninsula remains one of the world's most dangerous places. While North Korea has an army of 1.2 million troops and holds Seoul hostage with its missiles and artillery, Pyongyang is in desperate straits after a decade of economic decline, food shortages, and diplomatic isolation. In 1998, former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry traveled to Pyongyang to propose increasing outside aid from the United States, South Korea, and Japan in exchange for North Korea's promise to reduce military provocations. The third in a series of influential Task Force reports on Korea policy, this study argues that, in spite of tensions, the United States should continue to support South Korea's engagement policy and keep Perry's proposal on the table. The Task Force recommends that, should North Korea increase tensions by testing long-range missiles, the United States and its allies should take a new approach to Pyongyang, including enhancing U.S.-Japan and South Korean deterrence against other North Korean threats, suspending new South Korean investment in North Korea, and placing new Japanese restrictions on financial transfers to the North. By suggesting the possibility of gradually reducing the danger on the Korean peninsula, this report represents a crucial addition to the discussion of U.S.-North Korean economic relations.

Countering the North Korean Threat

Countering the North Korean Threat
Author: Committee on Foreign Affairs House of Representatives
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 108
Release: 2017-04-26
Genre:
ISBN: 9781545548493

For many years, North Korea's nuclear weapons program has been a concern. In 2016, North Korea conducted two tests of an atomic weapon and 20 separate tests of their intercontinental ballistic missile system, including a test in which a submarine fired an ICBM. North Korea is trying to miniaturize the size of their nuclear weapons in order to fit a nuclear warhead on an ICMB. With each test, the North Koreans learn more about how to perfect their illegal weapons, and with each test our allies in Seoul and Tokyo are reminded of just how dangerous their neighborhood has become. That's why the South Korean Government is moving ahead with the deployment of a THAAD anti-ballistic missile, a purely defensive system. This threat is not limited to Northeast Asia. The best minds working on this problem agree that North Korea is just a few years or even less from a weapon that could reach the United States. There is a critically short period of time left to stop that from happening.

Confronting Security Challenges on the Korean Peninsula

Confronting Security Challenges on the Korean Peninsula
Author: Marine Corps Press
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2018-01-21
Genre:
ISBN: 9781984056450

The Korean Peninsula was and is in a state of flux.More than 60 years after the war that left the country divided, the policies and unpredictability of the North Korean regime, in conjunction with the U.S. alliance with South Korea and the involvement of China in the area, leave the situation there one of the most capricious on the globe. Confronting Security Challenges on the Korean Peninsula presents the opinions from experts on the subject matter from the policy, military, and academic communities. Drawn from talks at a conference in September 2010 at Marine Corps University, the papers explore the enduring security challenges, the state of existing political and military relationships, the economic implications of unification, and the human rights concerns within North and South Korea. They also reiterate the importance for the broader East Asia region of peaceful resolution of the Korean issues.

North Korea

North Korea
Author: Congressional Research Congressional Research Service
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2015-06-22
Genre:
ISBN: 9781512273342

North Korea has presented one of the most vexing and persistent problems in U.S. foreign policy in the post-Cold War period. The United States has never had formal diplomatic relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the official name for North Korea), although contact at a lower level has ebbed and flowed over the years. Negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program have occupied the past three U.S. administrations, even as some analysts anticipated a collapse of the isolated authoritarian regime. North Korea has been the recipient of over $1 billion in U.S. aid (though none since 2009) and the target of dozens of U.S. sanctions.

An Information Based Strategy to Reduce North Korea's Increasing Threat

An Information Based Strategy to Reduce North Korea's Increasing Threat
Author: Fredrick Vincenzo
Publisher:
Total Pages: 15
Release: 2016
Genre: Escalation (Military science)
ISBN:

"The United States' current approach to North Korea does not fundamentally resolve the risks of its belligerent behavior nor halt the development of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. As these capabilities are improved, there is greater potential that Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea -- confident he can deter a regime-threatening reaction -- will attempt a violent provocation to achieve political objectives but in doing so miscalculates and instead sparks a crisis which escalates disastrously. While the United States has contingency plans for a wide range of conflict scenarios, executing them would be extraordinarily costly -- the military capabilities Pyongyang has now amassed would inflict catastrophic damage. James Clapper, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, has repeatedly warned that Pyongyang is 'committed to developing a long-range, nuclear-armed missile that is capable of posing a direct threat to the United States...' and that 'North Korea has already taken initial steps toward fielding this system...' With such a capability, Kim is attempting force the international community to accommodate him to avoid conflict. However, he could underestimate U.S. resolve, which in turn would ignite conflict. If the Kim regime falls, a nuclear-armed, fragmented military could strike the United States. To avert this, the United States should work with South Korea to develop an information campaign designed to reduce the risks of conflict or regime collapse by convincing regime elites that their best options in these circumstances would be to support ROK-U.S. Alliance efforts ... Reducing the wartime damage the North could inflict and lessening the potential chaos of collapse would provide renewed leverage for the U.S.-ROK Alliance to de-escalate a crisis before it erupts. However, if crisis does occur, this strategy would enable a more favorable and less costly conclusion"--Publisher's web site.

North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Development and Diplomacy

North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Development and Diplomacy
Author: Larry A. Niksch
Publisher:
Total Pages: 25
Release: 2006
Genre: Korea (North)
ISBN:

North Korea's first test of a nuclear weapon on October 9, 2006, and its multiple missile tests of July 4, 2006, escalate the issue of North Korea in U.S. foreign policy. These acts show a North Korean intent to stage a nuclear breakout of its nuclear program and openly produce nuclear weapons. The main objective of the Bush Administration is to secure the dismantling of North Korea's plutonium and uranium-based nuclear programs. Its strategy has been: (1) terminating the Agreed Framework; (2) withholding U.S. reciprocal measures until North Korea takes steps to dismantle its nuclear programs; (3) assembling an international coalition, through six party negotiations, to apply diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea; and (4) imposing financial sanctions on foreign banks that facilitate North Korea's illegal counterfeiting activities. China, South Korea, and Russia have criticized the Bush Administration for not negotiating directly with North Korea, and they voice opposition to economic sanctions and to the potential use of force against Pyongyang. China, Russia, and South Korea have expressed support for key North Korean negotiating proposals in six-party talks. The talks have made little progress. North Korea has widened progressively the gap between its core negotiating position and the U.S. core position, for example when it asserted that it would not dismantle or even disclose its nuclear programs until light water reactors were physically constructed in North Korea. Critics increasingly have charged that despite its tough rhetoric, the Bush Administration gives North Korea a relatively low priority in U.S. foreign policy and takes a passive diplomatic approach to the nuclear issue and other issues. This report replaces IB91141, North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program, by Larry A. Niksch. It will be updated periodically.

U.S. Nonproliferation Policy Towards North Korea: Nuclear Program, Dprk Belligerent Acts and American Responses, Potential for Military Action, New Ty

U.S. Nonproliferation Policy Towards North Korea: Nuclear Program, Dprk Belligerent Acts and American Responses, Potential for Military Action, New Ty
Author: U. S. Military
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2017-03-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781520959481

The United States policy for dealing with a nuclear North Korea has been a combination of containment, deterrence, and limited engagement since 1994. While this policy has prevented war on the Korean peninsula, it has not prevented North Korea from developing a nuclear program and proliferating this technology, as well as missile technology, to numerous countries not friendly to the United States. In order to stop North Korea from transferring weapons technology, the United States needs a new strategic concept. This paper will examine four options that may be used to support the element of the U.S. National Security Strategy of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.The United States policy for dealing with a nuclear North Korea has been a combination of containment, deterrence, and limited engagement since the enactment of the 1994 Agreed Framework. While this and earlier policies have prevented war on the Korean peninsula, such approaches have not prevented North Korea from developing a nuclear program and proliferating this technology, as well as missile technology, to numerous countries not friendly to the United States. In order to stop North Korea from transferring weapons technology, the United States needs a new strategic concept. This paper will examine four options that may be used to support the element of the U.S. National Security Strategy of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.The question is if current U.S. policy has prevented North Korea from developing a nuclear program and exporting its technology to other countries. The answer is no. Even though one of North Korea's demands is to be removed from the list of state sponsored of terrorism, the North has not complied by following policies that would lead to that removal. Gregory J. Moore states that "the United States did not prevent North Korea from acquiring and testing nuclear weapons, despite its deterrent strategies, its diplomatic efforts, its ultimatums, and U.S.-sponsored UN Security Council resolutions against it." There are signs that the North should comply with the non-proliferation treaty. Gregory L. Schulte writes that, "Since the first atomic bomb was assembled, 18 countries have chosen to dismantle their nuclear weapons programs. Countries such as Argentina, Libya, South Africa, and Switzerland made this decision for a variety reasons, but foremost among them was the desire to improve their international standing. Another important factor was foreign pressure, especially from the United States." However, since the 1994 Agreed Framework, North Korea has not complied with any agreements they have made. Hence, the six-party talks are an example of failed American diplomacy.