Search

Begin New Search Political Geography North Korea Publication Year within 25 Years

441. North Korea's foreign economic relations

Author:
Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland
Publication Date:
05-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
Many debates about engagement with North Korea hinge on the precise nature of North Korea's foreign economic relations: whether trade and investment are on commercial or non-commercial terms; the extent of illicit activities, and the changing geographic patterns of North Korea's trade. This article provides an effort to reconstruct North Korea's foreign economic relations, subordinating our estimates to the discipline of the balance of payments accounting framework. Among the most salient findings for the debate about engagement and sanctions is that North Korea's trade and investment have continued to increase despite the onset of the nuclear crisis and a decline in illicit activities. This growth has occurred in part because of the growing weight of China and South Korea in trade, aid, and investment. We also find that economic relations between North and South Korea have a substantially greater non-commercial component than those occurring across the China–North Korea border.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
China, South Korea, and North Korea

442. La Confianza y la Sunshine Policy en Corea

Author:
Joël Lambert
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
Hacia el final de 2000, el entonces Presidente de Corea del Sur, Kim Dae-jung, recibió el Premio Nóbel de la Paz otorgado por su trayectoria de lucha en favor de la democracia y de la paz, en la península coreana. Ese mismo año, antes de recibir la condecoración, Kim Dae-jung se había reunido con su homólogo de Corea del Norte, Kim Jong Il, en una Cumbre histórica en Pyongyang. Este encuentro se transformó en el símbolo de su Sunshine Policy, política que Kim Dae-jung desarrolló hacia Corea del Norte durante su Presidencia entre los años 1998 y 2003. En la reunión, el Sur y el Norte concordaron en que era importante consolidar la confianza entre ellos, lo que quedó estipulado en la Declaración Conjunta de la Cumbre. Kim Dae-jung reiteró su compromiso de incrementar la confianza mutua en la península, por lo menos, en dos discursos durante el mismo año (Kim, 2000b; Kim, 2000c). Su comportamiento con el Norte llevó a que Levin y Han (2003: 31) afirmaran que una característica distintiva de su Sunshine Policy era la disposición de Kim Dae-jung a confiar en Kim Jong Il, aun sin tener evidencias claras sobre las cuales basarla. La importancia de la confianza en los planteamientos de Kim Dae-jung lleva a cuestionar las características de este concepto y el rol que puede jugar en la búsqueda de la paz. Su estudio es relativamente nuevo en las Relaciones Internacionales, a excepción de la literatura sobre las medidas de confianza mutua en el ámbito de la seguridad. Contrariamente a éstas, se propone analizar la confianza como un concepto explicativo global de las Relaciones Internacionales, y no sólo restringido a los temas de seguridad.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Asia, South Korea, and North Korea

443. The (Non) Impact of UN Sanctions on North Korea

Author:
Marcus Noland
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
This study finds that North Korea's nuclear test and the imposition of UN Security Council sanctions have had no perceptible effect on North Korea's trade with its two largest partners, China and South Korea. Before North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test, it was widely believed that such an event would have cataclysmic diplomatic ramifications. However, beginning with visual inspection of data and ending with time-series models, no evidence is found to support the notion that these events have had any effect on North Korea's trade with its two principal partners.
Topic:
United Nations and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
China, Asia, South Korea, and North Korea

444. Institutionalising Northeast Asia: The energy market

Author:
Stuart Harris
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
Interest in more comprehensive institutional arrangements for Northeast Asia have been given a fillip by the suggestions emerging from the Six Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear program. The following paper looks at regional interactions on energy and related policies. It asks whether the regional actors see conflicts emerging within the region in their individual attempts to solve their energy security concerns, or whether they envisage cooperative ways for resolving such problems. In the light of this, it asks whether there could be a functionalist basis arising from energy cooperation for a wider process of community-building in Northeast Asia.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Regional Cooperation, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
Israel, Asia, South Korea, and North Korea

445. "2009 – Time for detente and disarmament"

Author:
Hans Blix
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The Cold War ended but it seems to be here again. The title for this paper is '2009 - time for détente and disarmament'. It really should have read 'high time for détente and disarmament' because the Cold War ended about twenty years ago and yet today it seems as if it were still here. We hear of plans for new nuclear weapons, the development and testing of missiles and antimissiles, plans for a further expansion of NATO and a chill in the cooperation between EU and Russia as a consequence of the war in Georgia.
Topic:
Nuclear Weapons, Treaties and Agreements, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, North Korea, and Georgia

446. Action for Action, with Mixed Reaction

Author:
Ralph A. Cossa and Brad Glosserman
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Comparative Connections
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
After eight months of inaction, there was a flurry of six-party action at quarter's end. As Pyongyang produced its long-awaited declaration of its nuclear activities, President Bush announced his intention to remove North Korea from the U.S. listing of state sponsors of terrorism and Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) restrictions. Pyongyang responded with a made-for-TV demolition of the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear facility. Elsewhere, respective reactions to natural disasters showed how far China has come and Myanmar/Burma still has to go in dealing with the outside world. There was a generally positive reaction to Secretary Gates' Shangri-La statements on U.S. East Asia policy and toward the two U.S. presidential candidates (or their surrogates) early pronouncements about Asia as well. In contrast, there has been almost no reaction at all to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's call for a more inclusive Asia-Pacific community.
Political Geography:
Asia, North Korea, Burma, Myanmar, and Pyongyang

447. Chock-full of Dialogue: SED, Human Rights, and Security

Author:
Bonnie Glaser
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Comparative Connections
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
Major developments in Sino-U.S. relations took place on the economic, military, and political fronts this quarter. The fourth U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue was held in Annapolis, Maryland, June 17-18, yielding a 10-year energy and environment cooperation framework. A telephone link was installed between the U.S. Department of Defense and China's Ministry of Defense and talks were launched on nuclear policy and strategy. The U.S. and China held a round of their bilateral dialogue on human rights after a hiatus of six years and vice-foreign minister level talks on security issues were held for the first time in four years. The U.S. provided assistance to China to ensure the security of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. A massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake rocked China's southwestern Sichuan Province and the U.S., along with the rest of the international community, provided aid. Secretary of State Rice visited the quake-hit area and held talks in Beijing focused on North Korea.
Political Geography:
China, Beijing, North Korea, and Maryland

448. Lee Outflanked

Author:
Aidan Foster-Carter
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Comparative Connections
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
Rarely does the political weather change so abruptly with the calendar as it has in Korea during the past quarter. As we reported in our last issue, North Korea chose April 1 – April Fools' day – to finally break its long silence on the South's new leader Lee Myung-bak, who was elected president last December 19 and took office on February 25. With rare restraint, Pyongyang had kept its counsel for several months since Lee – a former mayor of Seoul, ex-Hyundai CEO and self-described pragmatic conservative – was elected president by a large majority on a platform of mending fences with the U.S. and curbing Seoul's “sunshine” policy of the past decade. Though ready to expand inter-Korean dealings on his own terms – as in his Vision 3000 program, which offered to triple North Korean national income to US$3,000 per head – Lee insisted on linking any increased cooperation to progress on the North's nuclear disarmament.
Political Geography:
North Korea, Korea, and Pyongyang

449. Establishing a "Strategic Cooperative Partnership"

Author:
Scott Snyder
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Comparative Connections
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
The Lee Myung-bak administration committed to the establishment of a “strategic cooperative partnership” with China during Lee's inaugural visit to Beijing as the new president of South Korea. The visit occurred on schedule in late May, coming only weeks after the tragic Sichuan earthquake and in the midst of protests in South Korea over Lee's decision to allow imports of U.S. beef. Those events also quickly overshadowed a late April flap during the Olympic torch relay in Seoul over Chinese students who came to cheer the torch but reacted violently to Korean groups protesting Chinese government treatment of refugees and political suppression in Tibet. PRC Vice President Xi Jinping, China's designated successor to President Hu Jintao, made his maiden international visit to Pyongyang where he met with North Korea's top leaders, including Kim Jong-il and affirmed the importance of the Sino-DPRK relationship. As host of the Six-Party Talks, China received North Korea's declaration of its nuclear programs on June 26 in what really was a formality given the critical role of U.S.-DPRK talks in paving the way for the declaration. Nevertheless, the submission of the declaration did set the stage for the reactivation of Six-Party Talks in Beijing. Hyundai-Kia opened a new factory in Beijing and SK Telecom responded to strategic changes in China's telecommunications market by diversifying its investments in various Chinese multimedia companies in pursuit of a “convergence strategy” for delivery of multimedia, computer, and telecommunications applications to Chinese consumers.
Political Geography:
China, Beijing, South Korea, North Korea, and Pyongyang

450. Tentative Improvement through Pragmatism

Author:
Ji-Young Lee and David C. Kang
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Comparative Connections
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
Japan's relations with both North and South Korea improved over the past quarter. In conjunction with the North's June declaration of its nuclear activities, there was renewed momentum in resolving the two biggest pending bilateral issues between Tokyo and Pyongyang – the North's nuclear development program and the abduction issue. Bilateral talks resumed in mid-June after more than six months of no progress. The second quarter also marked a fresh start for Tokyo and Seoul as President Lee's Myung-bak's visit to Japan – the first since December 2004 by a South Korean president – marked the resumption of so-called “shuttle diplomacy.” The summit between Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo and President Lee produced agreements on several bilateral issues, including the stalled bilateral FTA negotiations, closer coordination on policy regarding North Korea's nuclear development program, and youth exchanges.
Topic:
International Relations and International Security
Political Geography:
Japan, South Korea, and North Korea