Korean troubles in their most recent form go back to the reunification of Germany, following which the North Korean elite began to suffer the disquieting experience of hearing other people talk about them as if they were dead. As the country lost its Chinese and Russian subsidies, the coming collapse of North Korea and the reunification of the peninsula on the South�s terms were subjects on everybody�s lips. Critics of the �agreed framework� of 1994 between the United States and North Korea were told that, long before the United States had to deliver, North Korea would have disappeared. That was the deal under which the pursuit of nuclear weapons would be halted in exchange for aid and trade, normalization of relations, and an American pledge not to use nuclear weapons against North Korea.
Often forgotten in accounts of North Korean duplicity is that the Americans have not kept most of these promises.
From the March 2003 issue of World Press Review
