[특집] 미ㆍ북관계의 전개

U.S.-North Korean Relations: Issues and Prospects

U.S.-North Korean relations are turning from confrontation to normalization after the end of the Cold War. Now that the Soviet Union is gone and the Cold War over, North Korea is no longer a direct threat to the U.S.. On the other hand, the C.S. has become the only superpower that can ensure the survival and development of North Korea. The overall direction of U.S.-North Korean relations will develop toward normalization but when and how this will be realized will be subjed to constraints of North-South Korean relations and U.S.-North Korean relations. As of October 1997. they are at the stage of opening their bilateral negotiation. Whether they will go beyond this level will depends on how North Korea undergoes under Kim Jong 11 who has just assumed the post relationship with South Korea. Major issues at stake in these relations include the Geneva Framework Agreement, negotiation on missile and U.S. soldiers missed in action. establishing liaison offices, and resuming four-party of North-South Korean and U.S.-South Korean relations is the most thorny issue of all the North's refusal to talk with the South while trying to negotiate a peace agreement with the U.S. ostensibly to replace the armistice has been the most important obstacle to improving U.S. relations with the North. North Korea has succeeded in improving its relations with the U.S. by resorting to a diplomacy of brinkmanship especially in dealing with nuclear issues so that the U.S. can ensure its survival and legitimacy. The U.S. in turn, has come to negotiate with the North to achieve global nuclear nonproliferation and some results in missile exports and MIA issues. Since these enabled the North to negotiate with the U.S. while refusing to do so with the South, North-South Korean relations have worsened. The prospects for U.S.-North Korean relations will depend on what change takes place in the North and in North-South Korean relations in the years to come. In order for the U.S. and South Korea to facilitate U.S.-North Korean relations in harmony and in parallel with North-South Korean relations. they must sustain their common agenda for the peace and unification process by redefining their bilateral alliance against war into a regional alliance for unification in the peninsula and stability in Northeast Asia. To do so, they also need to build public support and to engage China in the process.