Tension on the Korean Peninsula - South Korean policy towards North Korea
North Korea (Formal name: Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea or DPRK) is as a relic of the cold war; the world's last remaining totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship. As arguably the most secretive state in the world, it poses a unique set of challenges to the world and especially its democratic and capitalist neighbor South Korea (Formal Name Republic of Korea, ROK). As a relic of the cold war, North Korea remains an anomaly of the international system, and as past interactions show, it proves extremely difficult to predict what future actions it will take. With the recent bombardment of the South Korean Island of Yeongpyong and the sinking of the warship Cheonan, tensions between the two Korea's are at their lowest point since the end of the Korean War. What direction must South Korea take if it hopes to achieve lasting peace on the peninsula and is the goal of re-unification something that can be attained in our lifetime? Past South Korean engagement policies such as the Nordpolitik and the 'Sunshine Policy' have shown to illicit some positive effects on improving relations but failed to reduce the military tension that exists on the peninsula as the North continued to pursue a nuclear weapons program during their implementation.
While trains were used to transport U.S. Soldiers ...
Territory often changed hands early in the war, un...
English: Republic of Korea (ROK) and United States...The current administration has taken a more hard lined approach but this too has proven to only further increase tensions as evident with the recent provocations. For South Korea to successfully formulate a set of policies that would illicit a positive response from North Korea, South Korea must carefully evaluate its past policy successes while also attempting to understand the underlying reasoning behind North Korean behavior. This succession could prove to be a catalyst for the demise of the DPRK and S.