Abstract

How long yet for Korea's cold war?

Last fall, the Prime Ministers of North and South Korea began the highest-level discussions between their two states since the end of the Korean War in 1953 and, for the first time, agreed to talk about arms control. These talks came at a time of political realignment that is changing, perhaps forever, the cold war framework that has defined Northeast Asia since the United States and the Soviet Union accepted the surrender of Imperial Japan in 1945. Last September the Soviet Union and South Korea opened full diplomatic relations, and Kim Il Sung, the President of North Korea, offered to normalize economic and political ties with Japan. In October, China and South Korea signed a commercial treaty, in 1989 the former enemies engaged in trade worth more than $3 billion.