Foreign Relations of North Korea - Overview

Overview

As Third World countries increased their influence in the arena of world politics and Soviet–American détente created opportunities for countries in both blocs, North Korea declared 1972 a year of diplomacy. The DPRK used two strategies: first, it reached out to African countries where China had already established economic and diplomatic influence. Second, North Korea established diplomatic relations with capitalist countries in an effort to develop its economy. Unlike China, which established new ties across a broad political spectrum, North Korea concentrated its diplomatic efforts in Europe with those countries with a strong communist or socialist party, such as Finland, West Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. As a result, North Korea established its diplomatic relations with 66 countries in a decade.

North Korea has a history of poor relations with western-friendly neighboring countries. During the 1970s and 1980s, North Korean abductions of Japanese and South Koreans occurred. Although having since partly resolved the issue by admitting its role in the abductions, it remains a contentious issue with the two countries. In addition, the United States accuses North Korea of producing large numbers of high-quality counterfeit U.S. bills. South Korea had maintained a Sunshine policy towards North Korea since the 1990s, stressing Korean reunification and thus often going to great lengths to avoid antagonizing the leadership of the country. This policy ended in 2009.

Since the late 1980s, North Korea's nuclear program has become a pressing issue in international affairs. After allegations from the United States about the continued existence of a military nuclear program in defiance of the 1994 Agreed Framework, North Korea allegedly admitted to the existence of uranium enrichment activities during a private meeting with American military officials. Afterwards, North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty on January 10, 2003. After insisting on bilateral negotiations with the United States, it agreed to six-party talks between itself, the United States, South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan in August 2003. The talks continued for two years until an agreement was reached on September 19, 2005, which was placed under severe strain by the subsequent nuclear test by North Korea in October 2006. Since then, a very similar agreement was reached on February 13, 2007, that includes normalizing US-North Korean and Japanese-North Korean diplomatic ties on the condition that North Korea freeze its Yongbyon nuclear facility.