The US-ROK Alliance in Coping with North Korea's Nuclear Threat

This paper examines the feasible policy options of the United States and Republic of Korea alliance in coping with the current DPRK nuclear crisis. North Korea's third nuclear weapon experiment with several medium- and long-range missile test firings pose a security threat to South Korea. In March 2013, the Central Committee of the Workers' Party adopted a new strategy of simultaneously building up the economy and nuclear capability. As a non-nuclear power, South Korea faces difficulty in developing effective countermeasures against the nuclear threat from the North. Although the United States has confirmed its commitment to defending South Korea, Seoul cannot dispel its own anxiety of a potential peril of nuclear attack from the North. This paper investigates what feasible policy options are available to the U.S.-ROK alliance in the face of the DPRK's nuclear threat.