[Newport, RI] Navigating [Mis]Trustpolitik: The Challenge of Inter-Korean Relations

Within weeks of South Korean President Park Geun-hye coming into office, North Korea conducted its third nuclear test and began a cycle of brinksmanship where it for the first time threatened to incinerate Tokyo in the first strike of a nuclear war and unilaterally shut down the only substantive inter-Korean cooperation at the Kaesong Industrial Complex for five months. While Kaesong’s reopening in September seemed to return a sense of normalcy to inter-Korean relations, the execution of Kim Jong-un’s uncle, Jong Song Thaek, in December raises new uncertainties about the stability of the regime in Pyongyang and the Korean peninsula.

As we consider the prospects for the Korean peninsula in 2014, Troy Stangarone, the Senior Director of the Korea Economic Institute and a 2012-2013 Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in South Korea, will discuss the current state of relations on the peninsula, South Korea’s new policy of “trustpolitik,” the prospect of North Korea’s interest in improved ties with Seoul, and the future of inter-Korean economic cooperation at the Kaesong Industrial Complex.