北韓의 核問題와 日本·北韓關係 = The Impact of North Korea Nuclear Issue on the Japan-North Korean Relations

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the time of emerging a new international order in the late 1980s, North Korea's nuclear issue has been allegedly internationalized by the United States, which desperately needs to keep Non-Nuclear Proliferation(NPT) system from being challenged from any rogue state including North Korea and by doing so maintain its hegemony that is now seemingly declining. In the process of fixing up the nuclear problem, the United States is determined to not lose its influence over the parties interested, including the nations surrounding the Korean Peninsula. For the part, North Korea intended to employ its internationalized nuclear problem to join the capitalist world so that it grasps the chance to survive itself in the geographical environment unfavorable to its military and economic security and the stability of its political regime.
This study analyzes how North Korea nuclear problem has impact on the relations between North Korea and Japan, specifically their diplomatic normalization and expansion of their economic relations. What did North Korea try to gain from Japan out of the threat deriving from the possession of nuclear weapons? How did Japan respond to North Korea's nuclear suspicion? Answering these questions, this study prospects the North Korea-Japan relations that would be changed by the nuclear problem.
Through the 9 meetings for diplomatic normalization from September 1990 to November 1992, North Korea made efforts to improve its relations with Japan, while it engaged in the nuclear negotiations with the United States and South Korea. For their part, the Japanese demanded that North Korea be free of nuclear weapons before relations were normalized. As a result, negotiations broke off with no progress made. Then it paid the increased interest in direct talks with the United States. Japan dropped to the second priority after the United States as an access to technologically advanced nations from which North Korea could attain political-economic interests through the nuclear issue.
As North Korea has decreased its interest in improving relations with Japan without cleaning its nuclear suspicion, Japan showed no hurry to provide technologically and capital assistance that would cause North Korea's economic resuscitation. The Tokyo government have paid attention to making use of the North Korea nuclear issue to increase the public's support to the national strategy of expanding Japan's international role and strengthening national security.
In short, North Korea Nuclear issue has come little fruit to the relations between North Korea and Japan. It is because North Korea firmly sticks to the diplomatic value of its nuclear possession and Japan can not get out of U.S. influence of let-it-not-go-alone in approaching to North Korea politically and economically. It is anticipated that only the resolution of the nuclear issue would help move North Korea and Japan toward improvement of their political and economic relations.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 북한 核問題의 국제정치적 의미
• Ⅱ. 북한의 核政策과 대일본 政策
• Ⅲ. 일본의 對北核 인식, 태도 및 대응
• Ⅳ. 北韓核의 일·북 관계에 미친 영향과 관계 전망