A collection of original papers by distinguished scholars, this volume explores a variety of strategies for the reunification of North and South Korea, based on alternative theoretical approaches. Although many policymakers and academics have been pessimistic about reunification, each of the contributors here argue that reunification could be achieved through a realistic, long-term strategy. In presenting their individual approaches to the problem, the authors first adapt a scenario for the future and then sketch a step-by-step program aimed at bringing about developments that would invariably lead to some form of reunification. Students of Asian studies, international relations, and political science will find this an illuminating treatment of the issues involved in one of the world's longest protracted conflicts. The volume begins with a history of negotiations between North and South Korea on the question of reunification and identifies the political alternatives. The contributors then evaluate various proposals for reducing tensions on the peninsula, using both academic and practical approaches. John Galtung, recent winner of the alternate Nobel Prize for Peace, argues the case for neutralization, while volume editor Michael Haas explicates a functionalist approach that stresses cooperative activities. Oran Young presents a plan for graduated, reciprocated unilateral moves for tension reduction. Subsequent papers discuss the nonviolence, mediation, and domestic political feasibility approaches in turn. The book concludes with appendixes containing the latest plans for reunification proclaimed by both governments. With world attention once again focused on Korea because of the recent Olympic Games, the issue of reunification has achieved new prominence. This volume is a timely and important contribution to the reconciliation process.

Nearly half a century after the fighting stopped, the 1953 Armistice has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War. While Russia and China withdrew the last of their forces in 1958, the United States maintains 37,000 troops in South Korea and is pledged to defend it with nuclear weapons. In Korean Endgame, Selig Harrison mounts the first authoritative challenge to this long-standing U.S. policy. Harrison shows why North Korea is not--as many policymakers expect--about to collapse. And he explains why existing U.S. policies hamper North-South reconciliation and reunification. Assessing North Korean capabilities and the motivations that have led to its forward deployments, he spells out the arms control concessions by North Korea, South Korea, and the United States necessary to ease the dangers of confrontation, centering on reciprocal U.S. force redeployments and U.S. withdrawals in return for North Korean pullbacks from the thirty-eighth parallel. Similarly, he proposes specific trade-offs to forestall the North's development of nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems, calling for the withdrawal of the U.S. nuclear umbrella in conjunction with agreements to denuclearize Korea embracing China, Russia, and Japan. The long-term goal of U.S. policy, he argues, should be the full disengagement of U.S. combat forces from Korea as part of regional agreements insulating the peninsula from all foreign conventional and nuclear forces. A veteran journalist with decades of extensive firsthand knowledge of North Korea and long-standing contacts with leaders in Washington, Seoul, and Pyongyang, Harrison is perfectly placed to make these arguments. Throughout, he supports his analysis with revealing accounts of conversations with North Korean, South Korean, and U.S. leaders over thirty-five years. Combining probing scholarship with a seasoned reporter's on-the-ground experience and insights, he has given us the definitive book on U.S. policy in Korea--past, present, and future.

One day, one nation on the Korean Peninsula

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of Tables, Figures, and Maps -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Economic Development and Government Policy in Divided Korea: 1945-1990 -- 2. Military Buildup in the DPRK: Some Indications from North Korean Data -- 3. North Korean Society Today: A Statistical Glimpse -- 4. Policy Issues in a Peaceful Korean Reunification -- 5. U.S. Policy Toward Korea: The Impending Challenges -- Index

This work presents a detailed picture of the divergent socio-economic trends in divided Korea since its 1945 partition. It also covers the social and political situation in the North and South today, and the domestic and international challenges to a successful Korean reunification.