3차 핵실험과 북한의 대외전략 변화 : 대북정책의 고민과 과제

Abstract

North Korea’s third nuclear test and persistent hostilities towards South Korea and the United States is raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the background to this change is attributed to changes in its foreign policy. After the Cold War, North Korea’s line of foreign policy was aimed towards leveraging safety against the U.S. and receiving economic aid from South Korea. However, the results were limited as both South Korean and the U.S. governments changed leadership in the recent years. Following unfavorable relationships with the U.S. and stalemate relations with South Korea after 2009, North Korea realized that economic assistance and security assurance could be obtained from China. With this backdrop, North Korean foreign policy took on a strategy of “selective parallelism” where North Korea is seeking parallel cooperation, where it is going back and forth between the U.S. and China for security assurance, and South Korea and China for economic support based on circumstantial conditions. Following this change, North Korea has maintained an adamant and hostile stance against the U.S. and South Korea in 2013. Such a change in North Korea’s foreign policy, followed by the continuation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, calls for an adaptation of our own policies towards North Korea and at the same time a realistic formulation of peace on the Peninsula.