The Korean conundrum : America's troubled relations with North and South Korea / Ted Galen Carpenter and Doug Bandow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carpenter, Ted Galen.

Contributor:

Bandow, Doug.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nuclear weapons--Korea (North).

Nuclear weapons.

Military relations.

Korea (North).

Korea--Military relations--United States.

Korea.

United States--Military relations--Korea.

United States.

United States--Military policy.

Military policy.

Physical Description:

218 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Summary:

For Over Fifty Years One of America's key security commitments has been to protect South Korea from North Korea. A product of happenstance brought on by the end of World War II and frozen in time by the Cold War, the division of the peninsula once played a key role in America's containment of global communism. Now, over ten years after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of communism as a serious threat to liberal democracy, the tensions between the two Koreas are a problem from another era. With two heavily armed opponents, North Korea's nuclear pretensions, and a sizeable contingent of U.S. forces added to the mix, Korea remains an unstable and dangerous flashpoint.

The United States seems to be heading directly toward a confrontation with North Korea, as Koreans in the South and nations around the world anxiously witness mounting tension. Carpenter and Bandow take a look at the twin crises now afflicting U.S. policy in East Asia: the reemergence of North Korea's nuclear weapons program and the growing anti-American sentiment in South Korea. They question whether Washington's East Asia security strategy makes sense with American forces spread thin with the Iraq war and with the looming prospect of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea becoming nuclear hostages. Carpenter and Bandow put forth the most provocative solution yet to this gnarled and dangerous situation.

Contents:

1 Growing Tensions with Both North and South Korea 9

2 The North Korean Nuclear Crisis: Then and Now 39

3 Options for Dealing with North Korea 71

4 South Korea as a Security Free-Rider 101

5 Time for an Amicable Divorce 123

6 Forging a New U.S. Strategy in East Asia 145.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [189]-210) and index.

ISBN:

1403965455

OCLC:

54752726