LNCV - Korean Peninsula: Enhancing Stability and International Dialogue 1-2 June 2000, Roma
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Engaging North Korea with the Global Political Economy.
Byung-joon Ahn
Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
byungjoon3642@hotmail.com
South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean Chairman of the Military Commission Kim Jong Il
agreed to have their historical summit meeting in Pyongyang from June 12 to 14, 2000. If the talks go well as
planned, they could pave the way for an end to the state of war that has remained in effect on the peninsula
since the 1950s.
This event will accelerate the process of engaging North Korea with the global political economy that was
clearly revealed when the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea(DPRK) normalized diplomatic relations with
Italy on January 1, 2000. The DPRK restored such relations with Australia in May and is to join the ASEAN
Regional Forum in July 2000.
Actually, this process started in September 1999 North Korea suspended testing its latest version of long-
range missiles while the U.S. is negotiating with it. President Bill Clinton announced a partial lift on economic
sanctions against North Korea that had lasted for a half century. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William
Perry as President Clinton’s North Korea policy coordinator revealed parts of his long-waited report on
comprehensively engaging the North in a productive negotiation that will lead eventually to diplomatic
normalization. These are positive signs for achieving a peaceful and nuclear- and missile-free Korean peninsula.
But they represent just the first step in a long journey toward engaging North Korea with the globe whose
endgame is by no means certain. Wither North Korea and the Korean peninsula after the summit?
To accomplish a peaceful and nuclear- and missile-free Korea is going to be perhaps the most imminent
task of East Asian security not only for North and South Korea but also for the surrounding four powers: Chin