Publication

This monograph examines the topic of North Korea's strategic intentions. The author first identifies a broad spectrum of expert views and distills this wisdom into three "packages" of possible strategic intentions: first, the modest aim of regime survival; second, a driving desire to maintain a strong, independent, and autonomous North Korea; third, an ambitious and extremely aggressive goal, namely the unification of the country on North Korea's terms. He then sets out to test which package appears to reflect actual North Korean policy. While he suggests that one is more likely than the others, he concludes that it is impossible to say with certainty which package most closely resembles reality. As a result, he suggests the further probing of Pyongyang's intentions.