North Korea's Military Research Articles

China–North Korea Arms Trade from the Perspective of Chinese Scholars

executive summary: This article examines the historical context and evolving dynamics of China–North Korea arms trade and its future scenarios, shedding light on the motivations, methods, and implications of this strategic partnership. main argument An assessment of open-source materials authored by Chinese scholars and experts indicates that, despite international sanctions on weapon sales to North Korea, arms exports play a significant role in enhancing China's geopolitical influence, countering the U.S., and securing a Chinese presence on the Korean Peninsula. Arms exports from China to North Korea are likely to shift from individual products to integrated systems, influenced by the adoption of systems thinking in both the Chinese and the North Korean defense sectors. Additionally, arms trade may evolve toward taking place within China's expanding multilateral frameworks, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Belt and Road Initiative. China may also see a role for North Korea as an intermediary for arms sales to other sanctioned states, mirroring its historical role as an intermediary for North Korea. policy implications • If arms sales from China to North Korea transform into system-based packages, then policymakers should anticipate changes in the nature and coordination of North Korean weaponry, necessitating a reassessment of defense strategies. • If China integrates arms trade into multilateral frameworks, then it is recommended that the U.S. monitor and assess the impact of these organizations on regional security dynamics and consider diplomatic measures to mitigate their securitization. • If North Korea acts as an intermediary for Chinese arms sales to sanctioned states, then robust intelligence efforts and international collaboration should be prioritized to enforce arms control regimes and curb illicit activities. • If Chinese assistance enhances North Korea's military capabilities, then counterstrategies for North Korean systems warfare and advanced technologies will be important for the U.S. so that it can continue to operate effectively in networked environments on the Korean Peninsula.

Types and Changes of North Korea Military Provocations in Kim joung un’s Period

Types and Changes of North Korea Military Provocations in Kim joung un’s Period

Counterthreat of Attack to Deter Aggression

I offer a model that captures the stalemate between North Korea's nuclear and military threats and the United States' responses. The model is based on a war of attrition during a nuclear crisis in continuous time with incomplete information. The true state of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs is not clearly known; however, North Korea's military technology becomes better as the status quo continues. Therefore, the leaders in the United States and South Korea should use an unyielding strategy that involves a counterthreat of military attack. The shorter the period until the commitment of the counterthreat provides a greater chance of North Korea backing down from its escalatory provocations.

Can South Korea Embrace Japan's Expanding Security Role? Sources and the Manifestation of the Conflicting Identities

Amid the soured bilateral relations with South Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has taken swift steps toward transforming Japan into a more active player in East Asian power politics. This is in response to North Korea's military threat and China's maritime expansionism. These intensifying security challenges prompted Tokyo to promote military readiness and introduce a force development plan in 2013. On 1 July 2014, Japan's Cabinet passed the decision on exercising collective self‐defense, signaling a shift from the old self‐imposed restriction on the use of force as a means of dispute settlement. The reinterpretation of Article 9 heralded a more proactive engagement of Japan's military in the regional power balance. Accordingly, Japan revised the US–Japan Defense Guidelines in April 2015, strengthening ties with the United States. South Koreans expressed sharply divided attitudes toward Japan's military empowerment. Marked differences ranged between the watchful eyes of the public on the one hand, and conditional acceptance by the government and security specialists on the other. Referring to regional geopolitics and historical bilateral relations, this paper presents conditions and rationales reconciling these conflicting positions.

Research on The Dispatch of United States Marines to North China in the Second Chinese Civil War and The Development of Sino - North Korea Military Alliance

Research on The Dispatch of United States Marines to North China in the Second Chinese Civil War and The Development of Sino - North Korea Military Alliance

La crisis nuclear de Corea del Norte: Sky News o Fox News

The information provided by News Corporation's two 24-hour news channels: Sky News and Fox News, concerning the North Korean nuclear crisis during April 9 -23, 2013 is examined in this paper from the standpoint of the framing theory. The authors focus on aspects such as Foxificacion, the presence of military experts on news programs, and the diversity of frameworks for the news. In the case of Sky News, information is made available through the prism of national events, given the time devoted to the controversy with the BBC's Panorama program. Treatment of the nuclear crisis on Fox News translates into constant criticism of North Korea's military policy and patriotic exaltation of the United States, with emphasis on the defense system, all cloaked in fierce criticism of the Obama Administration for not promoting military intervention in the conflict.

How to Deter North Korea's Military Provocations

This study identifies reasons why North Korea initiates conflicts against South Korea and its allies, and also provides suggestions to deter North Korea’s future provocations. Logistic models with robust standard errors indicate North Korea is likely to adopt hostile foreign policies when it is prior to and following leadership succession and when the United States is involved in a war. Moreover, while the effects of economic factors on North Korea’s or North Korean conflict behavior vary, they become more significant when interacting with both North Korea’s leadership succession and US preoccupation with other world affairs. The findings suggest the following: First, that South Korea should pay extra attention to North Korea when it pursues leadership succession. Second, in addition to solidifying the existing Korea-US military alliance, South Korea should build self-sufficient defense forces for a scenario in which the United States would be unable to provide a security umbrella. To deter North Korea’s repetitive attacks in this context, South Korea primarily needs to change its military doctrine from the ‘deterrence by denial’ to a ‘proactive deterrence strategy.’ Moreover, stealth and C4ISRPGM capabilities are necessary to execute this strategy. Third, South Korea and international societies should help North Korea change its economic infrastructure instead of providing direct humanitarian aid.

A Study on North Korea Military Evaluation During Carter Administration Decision Making towards the US Troops Withdrawal Policy - Focused on Evaluation Change of DoD and Military Authorities -

A Study on North Korea Military Evaluation During Carter Administration Decision Making towards the US Troops Withdrawal Policy - Focused on Evaluation Change of DoD and Military Authorities -

North Korea's Military Diplomacy with the Middle East: Centering on a Strategic Weapon System

North Korea's Military Diplomacy with the Middle East: Centering on a Strategic Weapon System

Substance of North Korea's military threats and the security environment in Northeast Asia

Abstract Despite continued strains on its economy, North Korea has yet to relinquish its nuclear weapons program. Coupled with such unwavering determination and tangible actions in the form of nuclear and missile tests, the perception that North Korea is only a threat within the region of the Korean peninsula and its immediate vicinity is antiquated. In fact, given the possibilities of North Korea exporting its missile or nuclear weapons technology to states such as Syria and Iran, ignoring the implications of the security threat posed by Pyongyang as global in scope would be committing a dangerous fallacy. Without exaggerating the threat through ulterior motives far removed from pursuing peace and stability in the region, one needs to set concrete principles on which to base a coherent policy toward North Korea. This would mean correctly identifying the threat from North Korea's arsenals, as well as departing from a highly paternalistic view of the North that only seeks to make Seoul more vulnerable to t...

Democratization and the US-South Korean Alliance

This article explains why, in the wake of South Korea's democratization, the US-Republic of Korea alliance has suffered a steady decline while avoiding an abrupt collapse. The author argues that democratization weakened this asymmetric alliance by increasing the political influence of nationalism in South Korea. New South Korean democratic elites, subscribing to nationalist ideals, demanded an autonomous, equal relationship with the United States regardless of the de facto power disparity between the two countries. These elites also deemphasized the security threat from North Korea—with which they perceived a shared national identity—and adopted an unconditional engagement policy with that nation. The United States, in turn, resented the apparently unrealistic policies of these elites and showed a decreased interest in the alliance. Democratization, however, did not cause an abrupt end to the alliance, for two reasons. First, North Korea's military strength preserved a significant strategic need in South Korea for allied support. Second, as the result of a measured transition process, old pro-alliance elites in South Korea retained enough political clout to proscribe a radical shift in foreign policy away from the alliance with the United States, while new elites had opportunities to reconcile their nationalist ideals with strategic realities.

The Korean Peninsula: Prospects for Arms Reduction under Global Detente (review)

BOOK REVIEWS133 Korean, Japanese, and Western scholarship in the subject, P'yöngyang remains a Churchillian enigma wrapped in a riddle encased in mystery. The outside world's understanding of North Korea continues to be clouded by a fog of propaganda and counterpropaganda. So, while a political scientist such as Scalapino seeks to discern, albeit cautiously, certain trends in North Korea, I, as a historian, can only cross my fingers, wait for the next event to happen, and then try to grasp its significance retrospectively. The Korean peninsula is likely to remain an exciting, if still unpredictable, political terrain for some time to come. Scalapino's lucid book does offer an urbane perspective on Korea's recent history, but it is by no means a definitive synthesis of the subject. Vipan Chandra Wheaton College The Korean Peninsula: ProspectsforArms Reduction under GlobalDetente, edited by William J. Taylor, Cha Young-koo, and John Q. Blodgett. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990. Price not given. Recent changes in global politics have provided an unprecedented opportunity for talks on arms reduction and the reunification of North and South Korea. The collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe and the consolidation of reform politics in the Soviet Union, along with the U.S. initiative for the reduction of tactical nuclear weapons, offer a valuable opportunity to resolve the dangerous and ultimately unnecessary confrontation of the two Koreas. But the relationship between North and South Korea has not kept pace with these global changes. Indeed, the Korean peninsula remains one of the most volatile potential sites of local conflict—the kind of international conflict that will characterize the new age of detente. The Cold War, unfortunately, still lingers in the peninsula. Why is this so? And how can this situation be corrected, and the chances for peace and unification enhanced? These are the questions that should be posed when we discuss "prospects for arms reduction under global detente" in the Korean context. What this book's eighteen writers, Korean and American, attempt to do is just that—well, almost. The book deals with such comprehensive issues as the new global detente and the Korean peninsula (Part 1) and the context for arms reduction (Part 2), and the more specific question of issues and prospects for arms control in Korea (Part 3). The book's main themes are as follows. First, the changing global environment is conducive to peace and arms reduction on the peninsula (see especially John Q. Blodgett's article "Conclusions and Policy Implications"). Second , in spite of this favorable climate, the North Korean leadership shows no signs of flexibility, especially in military matters (see Oh Chang Il's "Military Talks in Korea: An Overview"). Third, the governments of the United States and 134BOOK REVIEWS the Republic of Korea should therefore take the initiative in negotiations for arms reduction and peace (William J. Taylor, Jr., and Michael J. Mazarr, "The Future of ROK-U.S. Security Ties"). At the same time, ROK-U.S. relations should be changed along the lines of the new global detente (Cha Young-koo, "The Future of ROK-U.S. Military Relations"). Finally, the alliance should be alert to the possibility of military provocation by North Korea (see especially Oh Kwan-chi, "The Military Balance on the Korean Peninsula"). This reviewer's general impression is that the authors are still more or less obsessed with the Cold War confrontation between East and West: They are pessimistic about the prospects for democratic reform in the Soviet Union, and they believe that the Russians and the North Koreans are still building a military capability in Northeast Asia; that the North Korean peace and arms-reduction proposals have all been mere propaganda; that the North Korean leadership has not abandoned its prime objective of unification by force; that North Korea's military capability is superior to that of South Korea. Given the backgrounds of the authors, it is not surprising that they hold such obstinately conservative views: Among the eighteen authors, six were military officers on active duty at some point in their lifetime, and most of the others have careers in government or related institutions. On the issue of arms reduction, they undoubtedly represent...