The military balance in the Korean peninsula

Lho, Kyongsoo

doi:10.1080/03068378808730291

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…68 During the late 1980s, for instance, North Korean troops were said to outnumber South Koreans by 840,000 to 650,000, with the North enjoying an even greater advantage in tanks, aircraft and naval forces. 69 The South Korean Defense White Paper at the time argued that its military power was only 65 per cent of North Korea's, and that a military balance would not be reached until after the year 2000. 70 But on the eve of the year 2000 the refrain remained exactly the same.…”

Section: The Concealing Power Of Security Expertisementioning

confidence: 99%

A Rogue is a Rogue is a Rogue: US Foreign Policy and the Korean Nuclear Crisis

Bleiker

2003

International Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Two nuclear crises recently haunted the Korean peninsula, one in 1993/4, the other in 2002/3. In each case the events were strikingly similar: North Korea made public its ambition to acquire nuclear weapons and withdrew from the Nonproliferation Treaty. Then the situation rapidly deteriorated until the peninsular was literally on the verge of war. The dangers of North Korea's actions, often interpreted as nuclear brinkmanship, are evident and much discussed, but not so the underlying patterns that have shaped the conflict in the first place. This article sheds light on some of them. It examines the role of the United States in the crisis, arguing that Washington's inability to see North Korea as anything but a threatening ‘rogue state’ seriously hinders both an adequate understanding and possible resolution of the conflict. Particularly significant is the current policy of pre‐emptive strikes against rogue states, for it reinforces half a century of American nuclear threats towards North Korea. The problematic role of these threats has been largely obscured, not least because the highly technical discourse of security analysis has managed to present the strategic situation on the peninsula in a manner that attributes responsibility for the crisis solely to North Korea's actions, even if the situation is in reality far more complex and interactive.

show abstract

Section: The Concealing Power Of Security Expertisementioning

confidence: 99%