DPRK - USA Relations - Background
The United States and Korea’s Joseon Dynasty established diplomatic relations under the 1882 Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, and the first U.S. diplomatic envoy arrived in Korea in 1883. U.S.-Korea relations continued until 1905, when Japan assumed direction over Korean foreign affairs. In 1910, Japan began a 35-year period of colonial rule over Korea. Following Japan's surrender in 1945, at the end of World War II, the Korean Peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel into two occupation zones, with the United States in the South and the Soviet Union in the North. Initial hopes for a unified, independent Korea were not realized, and in 1948 two separate nations were established -- the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the South, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the North.
On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea. Led by the United States, a United Nations coalition of 16 countries undertook the defense of South Korea. Following China's entry into the war on behalf of North Korea later that year, a stalemate ensued for the final two years of the conflict until an armistice was concluded on July 27, 1953. A peace treaty has never been signed. North and South Korea have had a difficult and, at times, bitter relationship since the Korean War. The two countries are separated by a demilitarized zone. During the postwar period, both Korean governments have repeatedly affirmed their desire to reunify the Korean Peninsula, but until 1971 the two governments had no direct, official communications or other contact. North Korea has been ruled by successive generations of Kim Il Sung’s family, and its political and economic structure is centrally controlled.
The United States supports the peaceful reunification of Korea on terms acceptable to the Korean people and recognizes that the future of the Korean Peninsula is primarily a matter for them to decide. The United States believes that a constructive and serious dialogue between North and South Korea is necessary to resolve outstanding problems, including the North's attempts to develop a nuclear program and human rights abuses, and to encourage the North's integration with the rest of the international community.
In 1994, the United States and North Korea reached agreement on a roadmap for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In 2003, the United States proposed multilateral talks on the North Korean nuclear issue. Several rounds of Six-Party Talks have been held since then. Although North Korea has at times said it will take steps toward denuclearization, some of its subsequent actions, such as missile launches, have conflicted with those assertions. The United States has called on North Korea to take concrete, irreversible denuclearization steps toward fulfillment of the 2005 Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks, comply with international law including United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874, cease provocative behaviors, and take steps to improve relations with its neighbors.
Under an Agreed Framework signed October 21st, 1994. between the United States and North Korea in Geneva Pyongyang froze its nuclear power plants and the U.S. agreed to replace them with light water reactors. The Clinton administration pushed for the normalization of U.S.-North Korea relations until the treaty ultimately broke down in 2002.
Multilateral discussions were held September 19th, 2005 in Beijing involving South Korea, North Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia. The six-party talks seemed to have reached some consensus on North Korea abandoning its nuclear programs, and the North pledged to return to the Nonproliferation Treaty. But the pact didn't last long. North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon in October 2006, and then the U.S. took action against China's Banco Delta Asia, a Macau-based bank that was a "primary money-laundering concern" at the time.
Further six-party talks were held in 2007 and a deal was implemented in October 2007. The parties agreed to provide a total of 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil in exchange for the North committing to the pact. In 2008, North Korea demolished a 20-meter-tall cooling tower at its nuclear reactor complex to symbolize its commitment. But the talks had not been held since 2009, when North detonated a nuclear weapon underground.
Between 1995 and 2008, the United States provided North Korea with over $1.3 billion in aid, both in the form of food and heavy fuel oil, making us one of the leading contributors of assistance to the DPRK. But both the United States and UN agencies struggled with North Korean authorities over the lack of transparency and freedom to monitor the distribution of food and other humanitarian assistance. In the fall of 2008, the US resumed a food assistance program for the North Korean People, working with American NGOs and the UN’s World Food Programme. There were difficulties in monitoring aid distribution, and in early 2009, North Korea unilaterally terminated thr US assistance program.
The most recent official meeting between the United States and North Korea was on February 29th, 2012 in Beijing. Those were the first high-level talks between the two countries since Kim Jong-un came to power. The Obama administration urged the regime to suspend its nuclear activities in exchange for some 240-thousand metric tons of food aid. But again, the North didn't keep its promise and tested a third nuclear device in 2014.
With Joe Biden expected to serve at least four years as president of the United States, his administration could change Washington's approach to the denuclearization talks with Pyeongyang. The Trump administration favors a top-down approach, including summits with Kim Jong-un, but a Biden administration would favor a bottom-up approach. Biden's approach could cause a backlash from North Korea, however, which wants sanctions to be lifted faster through summits. There was the possibility that Pyeongyang could express its dissatisfaction through military provocations, such as tests of ICBMs, should the denuclearization talks not be a pressing concern of Biden's because of the pandemic situation in the US.
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha projected that the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is unlikely to return to the "strategic patience" approach of the Obama administration. Kang made the remarks to reporters on 08 November 2020 after visiting the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington. She was responding to a question about the possibility of Biden, who served eight years as vice president under former President Barack Obama, returning to Obama's North Korea policy. South Korea's top diplomat said that according to remarks from those close to Biden that have been made publicly, he is unlikely to return to the strategic patience approach. Kang said South Korea must continue to build on the process and progress it had seen over the past three years.
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