Engaging North Korea

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Lam Peng Er

Published:

2024

Publisher:

Routledge

Engaging with North Korea is a daunting but necessary task. The international community has groped for various ways to establish trust with North Korea in the face of its increasing nuclearization. Despite the offers of diplomatic and economic incentives, North Korea is reluctant to abandon its nuclear arsenal. Far from denuclearizing, North Korea has stepped up its nuclear and missile tests in 2022. This has become a source of concern for its immediate neighbors, South Korea and Japan, as well as their US ally. Although the international community is likewise wary of these developments in North Korea, certain countries have not given up on diplomatic engagement with the North. They are only too aware that misperceptions and political miscalculations may trigger a conventional war with the potential to escalate a nuclear apocalypse on the Korean Peninsula and beyond. Through an examination of the concept and types of diplomatic engagement toward the DPRK, the different countries’ underpinning motivations in engaging with North Korea, and a summary of the chapters in this compilation volume, the perspectives of lesser known actors vis-à-vis North Korea are considered. While the contributors of this edited volume recognize there are no easy choices in engagement and/or deterrence, it is still recommended that the countries of the world collectively, patiently, and purposefully engage with North Korea through pragmatism and idealism rather than fatalistically give in to the s…

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