North Korea and Northeast Asia

North Korea's regime has managed to survive in the face of serious internal and external challenges. Kim (political science, Columbia U., US) and Lee (foreign policy and security studies, Sejong Institute, South Korea) present eight essays that address North Korea's system survival strategies in the context of these challenges from a variety of theoretical perspectives, including assymetrical conflict theory, mercantile neorealism, and prospect theory. The papers are organized into three sections that explore the broad theoretical and practical aspects of North Korean-Northeast Asian relations (Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States are the Northeast Asian powers for the purposes of this discussion); the global, regional, and national forces that have shaped patterns of conflict and cooperation with the Northeast Asian powers, and the effects of the security and economic domains on system survival strategies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Samuel S. Kim teaches in the Department of Political Science and is a senior research scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. Tai Hwan Lee is director of the regional studies program and former director of foreign policy and security studies at the Sejong Institute, Seoul, Korea.