What Do They Really Want?: Obama’s North Korea

North Korea: the Next Generation - Victor D. Cha

What Do They Really Want?: Obama’s North Korea

The author is the inaugural holder of the Korea Chair at CSIS, and adjunct senior fellow at the Pacific Council in Los Angeles. He was director of Asian affairs on the National Security Council from 2004—2007 and deputy head of the U.S. delegation to the Six-Party Talks. He can be reached at vcha@csis.org. The author thanks Susan Hwang for research assistance. The views expressed in this article are his own and should not be construed as representing the position of CSIS or the U.S. government.

Negotiating with North Korea is all about contradictions. What can be important one day can become unimportant the next. A position they hold stubbornly for weeks and months can suddenly disappear. But these contradictions tell us a lot about core goals that may lie beneath Pyongyang’s rhetoric and the provocative actions which culminated in a second nuclear test on May 25, 2009. Understanding these core goals, moreover, offers insights into how spectacularly unsuccessful North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been as he prepares to step down.

What do the North Koreans ultimately want with their recent spate of provocative behavior? What is often stated through the mouths of their foreign ministry officials is only a part of the Pyongyang leadership’s broader goals. The judgments that follow are also informed by the experiences and “gut instincts” of those who have negotiated with the regime over the past sixteen years.

Download the full article, available in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format.

How do I order the printed version of TWQ?