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The 1994 Agreed Framework (Geneva Agreement)

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The 1994 Agreed Framework came towards the end of North Korea’s nuclear development and is often considered the United States’ last chance to halt the North’s nuclear program. In exchange for freezing its nuclear weapons program and submit to IAEA inspections, the US agreed to help North Korea resolve the “energy problems” ostensibly driving the North’s pursuit of nuclear energy, first by providing oil and later by constructing tamper-proof nuclear reactors. While the North did temporarily freeze plutonium production and the construction of two new reactors, both sides soon fell through on the deal. While it is difficult to know if North Korea ever truly ceased its operations, it did begin secretly enriching uranium shortly after the agreement and was caught out by intelligence officials under the Bush administration, which opted to void the agreement altogether rather than try to negotiate to save the deal.

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The Dilemma of a Demilitarized Border Region on the Korean Peninsula

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Making Peaceful Coexistence Work on the Korean Peninsula

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  * The joint presidential briefing by the Ministry of Unification, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of National Defense for the second half of 2026 is being held at the Blue House on August 5, 2026. © Blue House Il Young Jeong Senior Research Fellow_Institute of Social Science_Sogang University On August 5, the Ministry of Unification, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of National Defense jointly presented their policy reports to President Lee Jae-myung for the second half of 2026. Traditionally, presidential policy briefings have been held only once at the beginning of the year. The Lee government, however, added a summer briefing as a midterm assessment of its policies. The occasion also served as an opportunity to evaluate and adjust the government’s policies toward the Korean Peninsula over the past year. In this column, I will examine the Lee Jae-myung government’s policy of peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula, identify its key challenges, an...
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I Oppose the Revision of Japan's Security Strategy that Undermines the Peace Constitution

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*The Rising Sun Flag flying above a Japanese warship. @iStock   Il Young Jeong Research Professor_Institute of Social Sciences_Sogang University On December 16th, 2022, the Kishida Cabinet revised Japan’s national security strategy and effectively neutralized Japan’s long-standing ‘defense-only’ policy to act only in response to an attack by an enemy, a principle that has been maintained since World War II. Rather than revising Japan’s Peace Constitution, the Japanese government played a trick. Yet, the Korean government’s response to this maneuver has been vague at best. This article investigates and criticizes the Korean government's lukewarm response to Japan’s tricky switch away from its defense-only policy.   How Revising Three Security Documents Rocked the Foundation of Japan's Peace Constitution? On December 16, the Japanese government called an extraordinary cabinet meeting during which it revised and approved three major security documents, including a documen...
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