Political Economy of the U.S. Economic Sanctions Against North Korea : Past, Present and Future

Abstract

The U.S. economic sanctions against North Korea began with the outbreak of the Korean War. When the Korean War broke out, the U.S. took such measures as embargo and frozen assets within the U.S. and has been continuously intensifying the blockade thereafter. The economic sanctions against North Korea started to show changes during the Bush Administration of the 1980s and began to be partially released in the 1990s. As the U.S.-North Korea relations, which been seemed to be recovering during the Clinton Administration, repeat the conflicts and confrontations in the current Bush Administration, the possibility of the removal of the economic sanctions is even more decreasing. The U.S. economic blockade also has negative effect on the economic cooperation between South Korea and North Korea. The speed and the direction of the North Korea's economic reconstruction, the promotion of reform and opening and the removal of the economic blockade will be greatly influenced by its relation with the U.S. Moreover, the improvement in the relation not only will affect the problem between the U.S. and North Korea but also will affect the relation between South and North Koreas. The U.S. economic sanctions are not a relation problem between the U.S. and North Korea but also a problem to both South and North Koreas. Moreover, such relation between South and North Koreas will enforced the relational changes with the surrounding four major countries (Order in the Northeast area of Asia) around North Korea.