US Holds Key to Non‐Proliferation

Never before in history have China and Japan been great powers at the same time. Today they must figure out how to live together as equals. The promise of mutual prosperity ties them together; the remembrance of bad things past pushes them apart. If that wary dance were not complicated enough, a nuclear provocateur from neighboring North Korea intrudes. A legendary figure of Japan's post‐war miracle, Tsuneo Watanabe, weighs in on these big questions. Hans Blix, a former UN arms inspector and the former South Korean prime minister and Nobel laureate, Kim Dae Jung, address the North Korean conundrum.     

President Bush: Talk to Kim Jong II

Never before in history have China and Japan been great powers at the same time. Today they must figure out how to live together as equals. The promise of mutual prosperity ties them together; the remembrance of bad things past pushes them apart. If that wary dance were not complicated enough, a nuclear provocateur from neighboring North Korea intrudes. A legendary figure of Japan's post‐war miracle, Tsuneo Watanabe, weighs in on these big questions. Hans Blix, a former UN arms inspector and the former South Korean prime minister and Nobel laureate, Kim Dae Jung, address the North Korean conundrum.     

The Locusts of Corruption

Never before in history have China and Japan been great powers at the same time. Today they must figure out how to live together as equals. The promise of mutual prosperity ties them together; the remembrance of bad things past pushes them apart. If that wary dance were not complicated enough, a nuclear provocateur from neighboring North Korea intrudes. A legendary figure of Japan's post‐war miracle, Tsuneo Watanabe, weighs in on these big questions. Hans Blix, a former UN arms inspector and the former South Korean prime minister and Nobel laureate, Kim Dae Jung, address the North Korean conundrum.     

New Links With China Are Key to Japan's Security

Never before in history have China and Japan been great powers at the same time. Today they must figure out how to live together as equals. The promise of mutual prosperity ties them together; the remembrance of bad things past pushes them apart. If that wary dance were not complicated enough, a nuclear provocateur from neighboring North Korea intrudes. A legendary figure of Japan's post‐war miracle, Tsuneo Watanabe, weighs in on these big questions. Hans Blix, a former UN arms inspector and the former South Korean prime minister and Nobel laureate, Kim Dae Jung, address the North Korean conundrum.     

The US Will Remain in the Yellow Sea

The recurrent crises emanating from North Korea, and the response to them, is testing US‐China relations and drawing the new boundaries of power in East Asia. The head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the former South Korean national security advisor address this development.     

Military First Doctrine Is Behind North Korea Adventurism

The recurrent crises emanating from North Korea, and the response to them, is testing US‐China relations and drawing the new boundaries of power in East Asia. The head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the former South Korean national security advisor address this development.     

China Challenges Unipolar Naval Power in Asia

The recurrent crises emanating from North Korea, and the response to them, is testing US‐China relations and drawing the new boundaries of power in East Asia. The head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the former South Korean national security advisor address this development.     

International pressure and North Korea's current options: Will Inter‐Korean relations improve?

Since the US identified North Korea as part of the “axis of evil,” the forecast for North‐South Korean relations has worsened. However, this article suggests that contrary to popular opinion, the advent of the six‐party talks may prove surprisingly conducive to the improvement of inter‐Korean relations. Three tactical moves seem currently open to North Korea: threatening the use of force in an effort to stall international pressure; attempting to mend diplomatic relations with the US; or the initiation of closer ties with Seoul, with the good offices provided by Beijing. The last option may prove to be the best from a North Korean point of view and may be the first step towards achieving the longed‐for Korean reunification.     

试析朝鲜半岛核问题与中国的政策走势

当前,朝鲜半岛形势由于朝鲜最高领导人金正日突然逝世、国家全面进入权力过渡阶段而充满不确定性。在朝鲜权力交替的敏感时期,各方为恢复六方会谈、重启半岛无核化进程进行的积极努力受此影响而放缓。朝鲜寻求核武器既是朝鲜半岛南北长期敌对、朝美间的冲突所铸安全困境之果,也是引发东北亚地区更大范围动荡的诱因,并且由于朝鲜权力交替蕴含的潜在风险,核危机对东北亚地区安全构成的威胁在增大。针对半岛核问题,中国政府一直通过双边和多边渠道发挥着稳定地区局势、推动半岛无核化的积极作用。结合朝鲜半岛形势的变化,在客观分析东北亚地区战略格局的基础上,中国政府将围绕维护半岛和平稳定和实现半岛无核化这两大战略目标继续作出更大的努力。     

Economic sanctions and the rhetorical responses of totalitarian regimes: Examining North Korean rhetorical strategies, 1949–2010

This study investigates the impact of economic statecraft on the North Korean Government. As a totalitarian regime, which is characterized by a controlled mass media, the North Korean Government tries to contain potential problems caused by sanctions by using three types of political rhetoric: appeasement, backlash, and surveillance. Using time-series data from 1949 to 2010 derived from a content analysis of the New Year's Day addresses by Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un, the empirical results suggests that the North Korean Government does alter its rhetorical strategies in response to external economic sanctions. Negative sanctions cause the regime to use appeasement strategies (or calls for reforms and internal changes). It tends to use backlash rhetoric (or blaming the sanctioning powers) in response to, interestingly, positive sanctions. Surveillance rhetoric, or the call for internal vigilance against enemies, on the other hand, does not have any statistical connection with sanctions, rather driven by other factors, such as the Korean War, external instability, and so on.     

Measuring Pro-North Korean sentiment in South Korea during the Kim Jong-il Era

This study analyzes recent claims regarding positive sentiment towards North Korea among South Koreans using cross-sectional public opinion data from the 2004 and 2006 waves of the Asian Barometer. Pro-North Korean sentiments are proposed to be highest among those who feel a stronger sense of common ancestry and language with North Koreans, the wealthy, the younger, those who trust NGOs, those in Seoul and those in the southwest region. I use ordered logistical regression to test hypotheses derived from these propositions. I find support for the southwest hypothesis, though the percentage of South Koreans with these sentiments is actually very low. The results have important implications for relations on the Korean Peninsula and the study of North Korean politics.     

Legitimating totalitarianism: Melodrama and mass politics in North Korean film

This article attempts to analyze the construction and maintenance of political legitimacy in North Korea through the lens of its state-produced films. After classifying North Korea’s regime as totalitarian, we then discuss the strategies of legitimation available given this classification, and highlight the importance of ideology therein. Next, we demonstrate the importance of film within North Korea’s ideological apparatus and thematically analyze six North Korean films dating from 1948-2006. From this analysis, we situate the social role of film in contemporary North Korea and argue that it will remain a crucial force amongst the country’s various attempts to maintain legitimacy.     

朝鲜问题对日本核政策的影响

朝鲜核问题使奉行无核三原则的日本的不安全感增加。悬而未决的绑架日本人问题和朝鲜核问题的长期化，加深了日本对于朝鲜的威胁认知。在日本如何重新界定美日同盟，对美国提供的核保护伞是否有信心，以及究竟从何种视角界定日本的国家利益等问题上，朝核问题都成为一个重要因素。在对朝鲜威胁的认知下，日本的核武装论不断升级。核武装论已经不再是日本的政策讨论禁区，日本核政策面临考验。     

The Cost of the Last Six Years,From North Korea to Kosovo

As the Soviet Union collapsed and China shifted to the market, it was said that communism was nothing more than the longest road between capitalism and capitalism. It now looks like the Bush‐era neo‐conservatism is similarly a long road back to the realism from whence it departed. The US is now talking with North Korea and Iran instead of preempting them through war. A dissident Iranian scientist, the former top UN arms inspector and a former US secretary of state ponder this state of affairs.     

Concessions on Iran's Nuclear Program Would Help Moderates

As the Soviet Union collapsed and China shifted to the market, it was said that communism was nothing more than the longest road between capitalism and capitalism. It now looks like the Bush‐era neo‐conservatism is similarly a long road back to the realism from whence it departed. The US is now talking with North Korea and Iran instead of preempting them through war. A dissident Iranian scientist, the former top UN arms inspector and a former US secretary of state ponder this state of affairs.     

North Korea Accord Is a Model for Iranian Crisis

As the Soviet Union collapsed and China shifted to the market, it was said that communism was nothing more than the longest road between capitalism and capitalism. It now looks like the Bush‐era neo‐conservatism is similarly a long road back to the realism from whence it departed. The US is now talking with North Korea and Iran instead of preempting them through war. A dissident Iranian scientist, the former top UN arms inspector and a former US secretary of state ponder this state of affairs.     

New approaches to North Korean politics after reunification: The search for a common Korean identity

Whilst most of the literature focusing on the Korean peninsula has concentrated on how to achieve unification through confidence-building measures, dialogues, negotiation and diplomacy, little attention has been paid to how a unified Korean identity, a core component of any potential reunification scheme could develop and be sustained. The paper addresses this gap by: (1) defining what national identity is, and how Korean identities have been formed, (2) outlining how both South and North Korea have understood and used the concept of national identity, (3) suggesting possible grounds on which the two Koreas could build a new, common national identity.     

North Korea’s Shadow Economy: A Force for Authoritarian Resilience or Corrosion?

An unofficial or ‘shadow’ economy like that in contemporary North Korea generates countervailing pressures for a socialist regime. It can buttress the regime by facilitating the cynical use of anti-market laws, alleviating shortages, helping the official economy to function, and creating vested interests in the status quo. On the other hand, the shadow economy can corrode the regime’s power by diminishing its control over society, encouraging scepticism about collective ideologies, and providing networks and material that can be used for opposition to the state. This article analyses these tensions in the DPRK, by drawing on 35 semi-structured interviews with North Korean defectors.     

Expanding the Definition of Asian Diasporic Studies

Abstract

Korean and other Asian adoptees are increasingly becoming a part of the racial landscape in the United States, although their presence is omitted or minimally addressed in Asian diasporic studies. In 1999, after 45 years of “feeling shame and a sense of guilt” (Lee, 1999, para. 3) First Lady Hee-Ho Lee marked the South Korean government's official recognition of adoptees as overseas Koreans. As involuntary immigrants, this population has both shared and unique experiences with other Korean immigrants. Current literature on Asian American acculturation, assimilation, and identity does not capture the experiences of Asian adoptees (McDonald&Balgopal, 1998; Min&Kim, 2000; Oyserman&Sakamoto, 1997; Phinney et al., 2000; Tse, 1999). This article presents quantitative research that considered the constructs of ethnic and racial identity for Korean adoptees, their relationship to each other, and to the process of acculturation.

This study of adoptees (N = 69), ranging in age from early-adolescence to young adulthood, explored the relationships between racial identity, ethnic identity, and acculturation in transracial Korean adoptees. The research was exploratory in nature and entailed a quantitative design comprised of three objective instruments measuring racial identity, ethnic identity, and acculturation. Findings indicated that the group was characterized as embracing both their Korean heritage and white middle-class upbringing with a somewhat greater need for assimilation or inclusion into the Korean community than differentiation from it. While adoptees are highly acculturated into the mainstream, they seem to journey, as do other immigrants, through a process of defining what ethnicity and race means to them.     

Assessing the leadership transition in North Korea: Using network analysis of field inspections, 1997–2012

This paper examines changes in the in the composition of the North Korean elite from 1997 to 2012, a particularly tumultuous period in the history of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Specifically, the paper assesses the changing composition of the leadership networks around both Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un, using data from the entourages that accompanied the great leaders on their “on the spot guidance” inspection tours. The paper finds that there have been significant changes in the leadership elite since the succession of Kim Jong Un. The paper offers some observations regarding the implications these changes have on the receptivity of the regime to a normalization of relations with the West and future economic and political reform.