Cooperation Coupled with Conflicts: Korea–Japan Relations in the Post-Cold War Era

This article addresses a profoundly curious question of why Korea and Japan conflict with each other despite deepening ties and growing transactions. In contrast to the existing explanations, this article makes three analytical innovations. First, for inducing cooperation between Korea and Japan, what matters is convergence/divergence of external threat perception, not the magnitude of threat. Second, history is not a constant but a variable. Historical contentions can be escalated or deescalated depending on political situations. Third, the role of the US in managing Korea–Japan relations is important but not determinant. The style of US engagement in East Asia serves as an intervening variable for conflict management. This article suggests that frictions are highest when historical contentions are escalated and external threat perception diverges. On the other hand, cooperation potential is highest when historical contentions are deescalated and threat perception converges.     

Perceptions toward North Korea’s nuclear weapons program: Findings from a public opinion survey

Due to the potential spread of nuclear weapons, North Korea’s nuclear weapons test represents a serious security threat to East Asia as well as a global risk. Many sources, including the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, argue that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program poses a security threat to the United States because missiles fired from North Korea could reach Hawaii or Alaska. Against this backdrop, however, no empirical research analyzing how much the ordinary American feels threatened by North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has been conducted. This paper examines American public opinion toward North Korea’s nuclear weapons program based on a regional survey conducted in Hawaii during the summer of 2005. The research compares and evaluates through various quantitative research methods, to what extent the respondents’ various demographic, political, and socioeconomic backgrounds seem to have divergently influenced the perception of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. In the evaluation of the majority of people in Hawaii, North Korea is pursuing the nuclear weapons program to enhance their national prestige and for self-defense purposes. Many respondents proposed multilateral negotiation as a desirable settlement method for managing North Korea’s nuclear program.     

The comparison of toluene determination between headspace-solid phase microextraction and headspace methods in glue-sniffer's blood and urine samples

An accurate and simple method was developed to determine the level of toluene in urine and blood quantitatively by using the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) with headspace--solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) technique. An assembly of SPME with a replaceable extraction fiber, coated with 100 microm polydimethylsiloxane, was used. The detection limit of toluene in blood and urine with HS-SPME technique was 10 times higher than that with headspace (HS) technique. To compare the HS-SPME with HS technique for the determination of toluene in biological fluids, blood and urine samples from glue sniffers were analyzed by both methods. The level of toluene by the two techniques was highly correlated: the correlation coefficient (r2) between the two sets of values were 0.98 and 0.96 in urine and blood, respectively.