U.S. FOREIGN POLICY IN RELATION TO NORTH KOREA

Abstract

This thesis examines the main drivers of U.S. policy toward North Korea’s nuclear weapons program from 1992 until the present. The thesis has found that there were four main drivers of American policy toward North Korea during each presidential administration examined. The United States’ regional allies—Japan and South Korea—have been concerned about the threats posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and they have made several attempts to negotiate the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in the conjunction with the United States. Allies’ concerns about a potential conflict, however, have led them to call on the United States to show restraint in the use of military force and economic pressure toward North Korea. China’s economic leverage over the DPRK and Beijing’s insistence on preventing the United States from imposing harsher economic sanctions on North Korea presented challenges throughout the presidential administrations. North Korea’s insistence on furthering its nuclear weapons program by continuing to defy the international order presents difficulties for the United States to achieve the goal of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. This thesis provides two future policy recommendations for the United States to engage with North Korea—adopt either an option of appeasement that centers on diplomacy or an option of pressure that relies on a combination of coercive strategies to successfully achieve the goal of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.