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FOREIGN relations of the United States; MILITARY strategy; NUCLEAR weapons; GOVERNMENT policy

NORTH KoreaReport Available; UNITED StatesReport Available

This article discusses the strategy of the U.S. towards North Korea. The author observes that the U.S. Korean policy does not start with a blank slate. For several years now the United States has been unable to manage the problem of North Korean nuclear ambitions. Several Administrations have been tempted to withdraw forces from the peninsula. The author criticizes the failure of the successive U.S. governments in handling North Korea. The article outlines four possible policies, a preemptive attack, a hard squeeze, including a willingness to risk war, isolation and containment, accompanied by an effort to minimize the chances of active fighting and a drive for a settlement with the North Koreans. The first policy may be dismissed out of hand. The second policy, would lead the United States to deliver an ultimatum to the North Koreans, to give up nuclear arms.