Sungmin Cho

The Joint Recovery of Fallen Soldiers from the Korean War: One way for American, Chinese, North and South Korean soldiers to cooperate and reconcile

By |2021-04-26T12:08:58-10:00April 26th, 2021|

By Dr. Sungmin Cho Introduction While the Biden Administration was reviewing its North Korea policy, Pyongyang once again raised tensions by firing two ballistic missiles on March 24, 2021.[1] Given North Korea’s triple whammy in 2020, — namely the pandemic-related health crisis, economic crisis, and natural disaster —, experts anticipate that the stress-ridden country is likely to continue military provocations. Therefore they urge the Biden administration to send an early signal to Pyongyang for talks and diplomacy.[2] In fact, the Biden administration has already reached out to North Korea, but Pyongyang has not responded.[3] A new approach is needed to break [...]

Why We Need a Regional Approach for Crisis Management with North Korea

By |2020-07-15T12:42:53-10:00July 15th, 2020|

This paper emphasizes the need for regional cooperation and the challenges involved in addressing crisis management in North Korea. Excerpt: While North Korea has an image of a “rogue state” that threatens neighboring countries with missiles and nuclear arsenals, we must not forget that North Korean people are experiencing starvation, malnutrition, poor health system, swine flu, flooding, drought, and land-slides, all of which will only be exacerbated in the wake of the global COVID-19 crisis. North Korea’s internal problems are expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable future and disasters experienced during the summer of 2020 will exacerbate current [...]

The Coronavirus and its Likely Impact on North Korea

By |2020-05-01T16:38:56-10:00May 1st, 2020|

In this paper, Dr. Cho explains how the COVID-19 is likely to impact North Korea's domestic politics and foreign policy behavior by examining the official statements, and foreign policies of North Korea observed in 2020. Excerpt: “I argue that there is a higher likelihood of the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea than otherwise. The epidemic does not seem to pose an immediate threat to Kim Jong-un in the short term. Still, he is most likely to be concerned about the outbreak's secondary effects on the economy and regime legitimacy in the medium term.” View/Download Document

North Korea as a land of cooperation between America and China

By |2020-04-02T11:21:08-10:00March 27th, 2020|

Key Points: North Korea's problems can provide an opportunity for security cooperation between the two great powers in the midst of strategic competition. Many security experts in the West tend to agree that there are four flashpoints where the United States and China may conflict militarily, which are the South China Sea, East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and the Korean Peninsula. Chinese analysts do not agree on where a massive military conflict is most likely to occur between the United States and China. View/Download Document

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