Creating the Conditions for Peace in Korea: Promoting Incremental Change in North Korea

This article examines the vexing problem of bringing peace to Korea. Success will require fundamental change to the North Korean regime and its behavior. However, North Korea faces a dangerous security environment with external and internal threats making regime survival its chief goal. Consequently, North Korea’s strategic world view is firmly anchored in the international relations theory of realism. Increased pressure makes it more difficult for North Korea to move beyond the constraints of realism and the North’s collapse would create even more serious problems for the region. This paper argues that a long-term, three-prong approach by South Korea, the United States and others in the region may be the best way to create the foundation for peace: diplomatic engagement that begins to reduce North Korea’s security concerns; economic engagement to open up the North Korean economy to encourage forces within to push for change; and continued military preparedness as a hedge to ensure stability.