International Cooperation for the Promotion of North Korea’s Reform and Opening

Abstract

Coping with the miserable economic situation since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and to secure regime stability, North Korea opted for the “Military-First Politics”and secret development of nuclear weapons. International sanctions under the U.N. Security Council resolutions have not succeeded in altering North Korea's behavior. Further sanctions would not work without the support of the surrounding countries on the Korean peninsula. Sanctions alone would not solve the North Korea problem and thus, besides sanctions, we need to develop policies for inducing a change from the inside by promoting reform and opening of North Korea. Encouraging a more open and market-friendly economic system would benefit the North Korean people as a whole and generate a less confrontational foreign policy. Helping North Korea to join the international financial institutions would be the first step for promoting North Korea's reform and opening. The very first thing for the international community to do,once North Korea moves progressively towards solving the nuclear issue, is to start the process of admitting North Korea to the international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. The IFIs are the very place where policies for promoting reform and opening have been made and implemented. Promotion of North Korea's economic reform and opening should be pursued adequately and, in a sense, independently of the political negotiations with North Korean authorities. Promotion of North Korea's economic reform and opening would act as a long-term way of solving the North Korea nuclear issue.