This book brings Korea's finest foreign policy minds together in contemplating the risks and rewards of finally ending the 70 year stalemate between North and South Korea through reunification. While North Korea is in conflict with the United States over denuclearization and regime security, the South Korean government is focusing on economic development preparing for the day when the two Koreas are unified. This book will help scholars, activists and policy-makers from all over the world systematically understand the current diplomatic and security issues in the Korean peninsula.

North Korean Foreign Policy: Security Dilemma and Succession, by Yongho Kim, starts from the point of view that North Korea's provocations have been motivated more by fear than by her in-born provocative nature. Kim argues that North Korea's provocative foreign policy reflects its threat perception stemming from various security dilemma, and a very real concern regarding another father-to-son succession. This volume views North Korea's external and domestic threats as causes and its provocative foreign policy as an effect of the causes. The security dilemma has impelled North Korea to generate and thus portray to the world provocative signals, and the ever-pressing issue of Kim Jong-il's succession has driven him to prioritize his own political survival over that of North Korea's state survival. Unless Kim Jong-il's political survival is guaranteed, North Korea will not be interested in full-scale introduction of capitalist way of economic reform and economic package promised by the United States and South Korea in return for the abandonment of their nuclear program. North Korean Foreign Policy suggests that an effective policy for countries relating to North Korea, whether dovish or hawkish, should deal directly with Kim Jong-il's political survival, and not with Pyongyang's failed economy.

North Korean Foreign Policy: Security Dilemma and Succession, by Yongho Kim, starts from the point of view that North Korea's provocations have been motivated more by fear than by her in-born provocative nature. Kim argues that North Korea's provocative foreign policy reflects its threat perception stemming from various security dilemma, and a very real concern regarding another father-to-son succession. This volume views North Korea's external and domestic threats as causes and its provocative foreign policy as an effect of the causes. The security dilemma has impelled North Korea to generate and thus portray to the world provocative signals, and the ever-pressing issue of Kim Jong-il's succession has driven him to prioritize his own political survival over that of North Korea's state survival. Unless Kim Jong-il's political survival is guaranteed, North Korea will not be interested in full-scale introduction of capitalist way of economic reform and economic package promised by the United States and South Korea in return for the abandonment of their nuclear program. North Korean Foreign Policy suggests that an effective policy for countries relating to North Korea, whether dovish or hawkish, should deal directly with Kim Jong-il's political survival, and not with Pyongyang's failed economy.

South Korea offers a timely illustration of the relationship between social media and national security. Following the country's democratization in the 1990s and the explosion of communication technology since the millennium, citizens have joined the discussion of national interests and ideological conflicts, involving anti-Americanism, re-unification and North Korea's provocations. South Korean media have influenced an ideological divide that distinguishes between young and old, haves and have-nots, security and nationalism, and pro and anti-North Korean sentiments. The author describes the effects of trade-offs between security and civil liberties and how narratives advanced through social media differ from those reported by traditional news outlets.

This book brings Korea's finest foreign policy minds together in contemplating the risks and rewards of finally ending the 70 year stalemate between North and South Korea through reunification. While North Korea is in conflict with the United States over denuclearization and regime security, the South Korean government is focusing on economic development preparing for the day when the two Koreas are unified. This book will help scholars, activists and policy-makers from all over the world systematically understand the current diplomatic and security issues in the Korean peninsula.