THE BERLIN AGREEMENT AND THE PERRY REPORT: OPENING A NEW ERA IN US-NORTH KOREA RELATIONS

Abstract

Through the Berlin Agreement and the Perry Report, the US and North Korea made a critical decision to go down the road toward mutual threat reduction, normalization of relations, and dismatling of the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia. IN order to inquire into the significance of the Berlin Agreement and the Perry Report, this paper reviews the changes in US policy toward North Korea in the 1990s and North Korea's policy toward the US during the same period, and the positions of both countries in the Berlin deal. Then the paper deals with the responses of Congress to the Clinton Administration's engagement policy toward North Korea including its recent responses to the Berlin Agreement and the Perry Report. This paper concludes by predicting that the next US Administration, Democratic or Republican, is likely to continue the hitherto engagement policy, not having much leeway for returning to the policy of confrontation and containment.