Joint U.S. Korea Academic Studies
From the Issue
Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies 2015About Joint U.S. Korea Academic Studies
For over twenty years, KEI has sponsored annual major academic symposiums at universities across the country and major academic conferences. Each year, papers are specially commissioned to fit panel topics of current policy relevance to the U.S.-ROK alliance and implications for the Korean peninsula. Following the symposium, KEI edits and publishes those papers in an annual volume entitled “Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies.”
For a variety of reasons, North Korea at times behaves in a provocative fashion. This chapter starts with a discussion of the concept of provocation and its nature. A careful exploration of North Korea’s provocations is conducted in an effort to identify the domestic and external causes. With a diagnosis of the pattern of provocations, the chapter suggests ways to cure the symptoms as well to eliminate the root causes. It concludes: 1) to cope with North Korean provocations is a collective endeavor rather than China’s lonely adventure; 2) military intervention is not China’s policy choice, but in order to deal with the hazard caused by North Korea’s unreliable nuclear technology, China should prepare to use force; 3) since persuasion plus material incentives alone fail to find receptive ears in Pyongyang, China’s pressure is necessary; 4) as change within North Korea could fundamentally temper its external behavior, resuming the stalled Six-Party Talks may be the only viable way to root out important external factors that cause North Korea to take bold, costly provocations.