Throughout North Korea's history, it has regarded external relations with suspicion and as a potential threat to its regime. With North Korea working towards denuclearization, there is now hope for an economic opening. This book examines the external economic strategies that North Korea may consider for its reforms and development, which are related to the East Asian economic integration process. This book emphasizes that considering theoretical factors as well as conditions of the North Korean economy, economic opening and integration should have high priority, anteceding or at least being parallel to economic reforms and transformation. Also, among various alternative strategies for achieving the goal of economic reform and development based on economic opening, the utilization of East Asian regional economic integration framework would be the best option for North Korea, because this framework can provide an opportunity for North Korea to overcome structural problems in its external economic relations and to circumvent political conflicts, thus leading to a smoother rapprochement towards economic opening. This book is timely as it shows how a new economic recovery strategy on the Korean Peninsula may be accomplished.

Throughout North Korea's history, it has regarded external relations with suspicion and as a potential threat to its regime. With North Korea working towards denuclearization, there is now hope for an economic opening. This book examines the external economic strategies that North Korea may consider for its reforms and development, which are related to the East Asian economic integration process. This book emphasizes that considering theoretical factors as well as conditions of the North Korean economy, economic opening and integration should have high priority, anteceding or at least being parallel to economic reforms and transformation. Also, among various alternative strategies for achieving the goal of economic reform and development based on economic opening, the utilization of East Asian regional economic integration framework would be the best option for North Korea, because this framework can provide an opportunity for North Korea to overcome structural problems in its external economic relations and to circumvent political conflicts, thus leading to a smoother rapprochement towards economic opening. This book is timely as it shows how a new economic recovery strategy on the Korean Peninsula may be accomplished.

Since the financial crisis began numerous ideas for monetary and financial cooperation in East Asia have been proposed both within and outside the region. Despite this strong level of interest, however, there are few studies that aim to comprehensively address the issue from multiple perspectives. This insightful book redresses the balance and illustrates how East Asian countries plan to take advantage of their rising economic power in rearranging the new international monetary and financial order in the post-crisis era. The authors examine the history, conditions and current efforts towards monetary integration in Asia and explore possible future paths, highlighting the roles and perspectives of East Asian countries in the integration process. They consider how East Asian economies could establish their own zone of monetary stability, and show that this stability cannot be separately addressed from the issues of economic growth and solidarity. Against this backdrop, the book tackles the issues of East Asian monetary integration underpinned by the broad framework of economic growth and solidarity. Scholars of economics, monetary integration, Asian studies and regionalism will find this book to be an illuminating and thought-provoking read.