Relations today between the United States and North Korea and between the two Koreas are poor, with no diplomatic or economic engagement and high levels of military tension and security risk. The North Korean regime, which remains impoverished, isolated and insecure, believes that the U.S.-South Korea alliance, with its far stronger diplomatic, military and economic posture, is indirectly if not actively pursuing an end to the regime’s existence. As a result, it has adopted an asymmetric approach through nuclear weapons to guarantee its survival and will continue wielding this program in the near, medium and likely long-term.
![Conductor Lorin Maazel along members of the New York Philharmonic after their concert in Pyongyang, Feb. 26, 2008. The performance marked the first time a major American cultural organization had appeared in North Korea. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/image_with_caption/public/2024-01/20240109-sub_ny_philharmonic-nyt-project.jpg?itok=kQjwiqEh)
In response to the enduring North Korean nuclear threat, the United States has led the international community in reinforcing a pressure-based campaign against North Korea that involves diplomatic isolation, military deterrence and economic sanctions. While this type of approach has successfully deterred major conflict on the Korean Peninsula for the last 70 years, it has not changed North Korea’s defiant behavior, prevented North Korea’s military advancement, lowered security tensions, or improved mutual trust and understanding.
The current status quo is a dangerous, adversarial stalemate in which the two sides are not engaging to resolve disagreements but rather strengthening their military capabilities and posture in the name of deterrence, which is exacerbating a regional arms race and the potential for an inadvertent nuclear conflict. At the same time, the diplomatic estrangement is impeding the nongovernmental and people-to-people engagement that could improve the humanitarian and human rights crisis of the North Korean people.
USIP invited subject matter experts to offer creative perspectives on how the pursuit of peaceful coexistence with North Korea across the diplomatic, security, economic and people-to-people domains can help the United States and South Korea advance peace and security and reduce the risk of conflict on the Korean Peninsula in a tangible and realistic way. The essays in this series address, among other topics, risk reduction, arms control, health cooperation, joint remains recovery operations, economic assistance, a two-state system and climate change collaboration. These perspectives highlight an alternative to the current hostile stalemate that can reduce risks and advance peace in a more productive way.
Essay Series
![South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol addresses a joint meeting of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, April 27, 2023. (Pete Marovich/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-05/20240509_uk-skorea-7_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=2YjGvX8J)
How Congress Can Help Improve Relations with North Korea
Matthew Abbott argues that Congress can exercise its legislative and oversight powers to play a more active role in reducing tensions with North Korea, particularly by seeking to resume direct congressional engagement with North Korea and facilitating greater people-to-people engagement.
![Members of the New York Philharmonic waved to the audience as they left the stage following their historic concert in Pyongyang on Feb. 26, 2008. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-04/20240415_sub-ny_philharmonic_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=vHYvSBG_)
Increasing Information Access for the North Korean People
Sokeel Park discusses how knowledge-sharing and public diplomacy initiatives that challenge the North Korean government’s control over information can help facilitate a positive transformation of the country that improves security on the peninsula and in the region in a sustainable way.
![Lee San Hun dances with a flag that symbolizes a unified Korean Peninsula to mark the Korean War armistice anniversary in Ganghwa-do, South Korea, on September 21, 2022. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-04/20240401_korean-dmz-life-21_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=sftYJZns)
It’s Time to Resolve the Korean War
Dan Leaf argues that making resolution of the Korean War an explicit U.S. policy objective is a necessary first step on the road to peaceful coexistence with North Korea today and could reduce the risk of deliberate or accidental conflict.
![Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, pose for photos before talks in Vladivostok, Russia, April 25, 2019. The two met more recently in September 2023. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-03/20240325_russia-nkorea-1_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=enxTnX78)
Three Conditions for Successful Engagement with North Korea
Mark Tokola writes that near-term U.S.-North Korea engagements that are win-win, founded on equality and not reliant on monitoring can spur incremental progress that leads to future broader agreements.
![North Korean soldiers keep watch during a ceremony for the anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice agreement at the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea, on July 27, 2016. (Kim Hong-Ji/Pool via The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-03/20240318_nkorea-data_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=A1abx-_1)
Building Trust through Health Cooperation with North Korea
Kee B. Park offers a new framework for sustaining health cooperation with North Korea based on humanitarian principles and a comprehensive, multi-year, multi-donor, and politically-protected approach.
![North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has described the effort to address the problem of deforestation in his country as “a war to improve nature.” (Doug Mills/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-03/20240311_us-nkorea-35_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=rz5ahUkO)
Climate Change as a Path to Engagement with North Korea
Troy Stangarone describes how cooperation on climate change, specifically related to reforestation and mitigation, could provide a pathway for U.S.-DPRK engagement.
![Soldiers stand guard near the Southern Limit Line of the demilitarized zone in Yeoncheon, South Korea, on June 2, 2009. (Woo Hae Cho/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-03/20240304_korea-border-4_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=mMBb1BVm)
Increasing Stability in a Deterrence Relationship with North Korea
Adam Mount argues that the U.S.-South Korea alliance’s efforts to increase its military advantage over North Korea is producing a fragile standoff and that modest initiatives focused on North Korea’s tactical nuclear arsenal are the best way of moving beyond the standoff to a more stable peace.
![North Korean workers at an apparel factory in the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea on Dec. 19, 2013. South Korea shut down the complex in 2016 in retaliation for North Korea’s rocket launch and nuclear test. (Park Jin-Hee/Pool via The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-02/20240226_koreas-minimum-wage_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=F66IomPu)
A Framework for Meaningful Economic Engagement with North Korea
Brad Babson argues that engaging economically with North Korea could help address its security and human needs and would be instrumental in finding a path forward for its foreign relations.
![Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, met in Vladivostok, Russia, April 25, 2019. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-02/20240220_russia-nkorea-4_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=X8MJlY0F)
Why Calls for Regime Change in North Korea Can Be Counterproductive
Lauren Sukin contends that indirect U.S. support for North Korean regime collapse is counterproductive, fueling North Korea's desire to maintain its nuclear arsenal, and that U.S. messaging should reduce this perception.
![An honor guard greets the arrival of remains returned by North Korea, believed to belong to 55 U.S. servicemen, at the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, July 27, 2018. (Ahn Young-joon/Pool via The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-02/20240212_nkorea-us-remains_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=orDmmgUS)
A New Approach to Recovering U.S. Servicemen’s Remains from North Korea
Donna Knox describes efforts to recover the remains of U.S. servicemembers from North Korea and suggests that NGOs taking the lead on this effort could sidestep, and eventually help overcome, U.S.-DPRK friction.
![South Korean soldiers stand guard outside the meeting rooms that straddle the border with North Korea in Panmunjom, a so-called truce village, in the Demilitarized Zone, April 19, 2017. (Lam Yik Fei/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-02/20240205_nkorea-1967-defector_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=c_j_tJCp)
How to Reduce Nuclear Risks Between the United States and North Korea
Ankit Panda writes that coexistence with a nuclear-armed North Korea will require the proactive consideration of pragmatic risk reduction measures.
![North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a signing ceremony with then U.S. president Donald Trump on Sentosa Island in Singapore, June 12, 2018. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-01/20240129_us-nkorea-71_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=szg2J-Up)
If You Want Peace, Prepare for War, and Diplomacy
Robert Einhorn underscores the limits of deterrence and argues for prioritizing risk reduction over denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.
![A reporter gestures toward the South Korean side of the border, left, and the North Korean side, right, in Panmunjom, South Korea, on Feb. 7, 2023. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-01/20240122_korean-dmz-life-23_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=_6IZJG-f)
Revisiting the Two-State System for Peaceful Coexistence on the Korean Peninsula
Bong-geun Jun argues that advancing a two-state system can mitigate the unification competition between the two Koreas that is fueling tensions and impeding peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula.
![North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone on June 30, 2019. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-01/20240116_trump-nkorea-12_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=4SBXdYMV)
Seeking Peaceful Coexistence with North Korea: What Would Kennan Do?
Paul Heer analyzes George Kennan’s views on North Korea, how they might be interpreted today, the applicability of his view of containment and his support for diplomacy leading to peaceful coexistence.
![South Korean soldiers stand facing North Korea at the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom, in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, on Feb. 7, 2023. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)](/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2024-01/20240108_nkorea-skorea-assess_nyt_ac.jpg?itok=Llm2vqZL)
Exploring Peaceful Coexistence with North Korea
Frank Aum explores the concept of peaceful coexistence between the United States and a nuclear North Korea, arguing that the current status quo of hostility could lead to inadvertent conflict and that a new modus vivendi could reduce the risk of conflict, improve security, and build mutual trust in a tangible and realistic way.