Sunday 17 October 2010

THE US AND NORTH KOREA

The Korea Times

INTRANSIGENCE IN N. KOREA POLICY

Tong Kim

The Korea Times, October 17, 2010

In the midst of a significantly shifting security environment in Northeast Asia ― with the confirmation of Kim Jong-un as the next leader of North Korea, China’s remarkable rise in power, assertiveness and influence, and the cementing of a ``lips and teeth” relationship between China and the DPRK, the United States needs to reassert its leadership with a new strategy to protect its interest in the Korean peninsula and the region. The U.S. seems to have abandoned its leadership role that its friends respected and its foes recognized in the past.

While taking no clear position on the North’s succession issue, Washington just wants to wait and see how the process would unfold or what impact the process might have on its relations with the South and the United States. On the prospect of denuclearization, Washington still sticks to its passive strategy of waiting for Pyongyang to show a genuine willingness to comply with its commitment to the 2005 and 2007 agreements. Recently, Washington added a new condition for reengaging Pyongyang: improved inter-Korean relations. The United States is also waiting for the South to improve relations with the North.

(...) [artículo aquí]

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