United States Policy On North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program

North Korea's nuclear program has posed a various kind of threats to the international community since the first revelation by French satellite in 1989. The nuclear program broke the military balance between South and North Korea, increasing the possibility of waging war, escalated the unnecessary tensions in the Northeast Asia, thereby letting the neighboring countries have the motivations for going nuclear. Moreover, North Korea's nuclear program, connecting with the other programs in the other regions, such as Middle East, became the worldwide nuclear proliferation issue. The U.S., as one of the states solving this issue, has made efforts to reach the desirable and fundamental conclusion, however, the efforts was not successful in that North Korea still continues to develop its nuclear weapons. According to main intelligence agency's analysis, North Korea already completed the nuclear cycle, from mining and milling to reprocessing operation, furthermore, North Korea already produced the plutonium enough to manufacture at least 5-6 nuclear bombs. With regard to the North Korea's nuclear intention, some scholars argued it could be the just negotiation tool, on the contrary, other scholars proclaimed it could be the means of regime survival. However, regardless of the disputes over North Korea's nuclear intentions, the U.S. seems to evaluate that North Korea would not give up the nuclear program without satisfactory rewards. When it comes to the devising the U.S.'s North Korea policy, the U.S. always had several things to consider, such as, China's role, the U.S.'s strategic interests in the region, the situations in Middle East, South Korea-the U.S. alliance, and the unique nature of North Korea, etc. Until now, the U.S. has devised four policy alternatives, some of them were already implemented, some of them were not put into action. They are engagement, containment, preemptive strike, and"do nothing"policy. Analyzing these policy alternatives with the use of military, economic, and diplomatic standards, the U.S. only could choose the hybrid mix of containment and engagement. That is to say, the current Obama administration also will continue to perform the mix of containment and engagement. However, considering the U.S.'s economic downturn, continuous crisis in Middle East, Secretary of State Clinton's strong position, the concrete expression of Obama administration's North Korea policy would be somewhat, possibly, different.