Beyond North Korea

de Pyŏng-gwan Kim, Gi-Wook Shin, David Straub

South Korea has prospered in the shadow of North Korea for more than a half-century. But can it continue to survive in the face of this and other pressing threats? South Korea. a U.S. treaty ally since the Korean War ended in 1953, is a remarkable example of economic and political progress, and a global role model for the benefits of open development policies and alignment with the United States. But the country's continued prosperity, even its survival, remains far from assured. Just across the Demilitarized Zone on the divided peninsula, the communist North Korean regime wields a million-person army and has developed nuclear weapons in an effort to intimidate, threaten, and eventually dominate the South. But is this South Korea's greatest threat? To the west, a rising China seems intent on restoring its millennia-long influence over the entire peninsula. And domestically, the South must deal with the downsides of its enormously successful modernization, including the world's second-lowest birthrate, a rapidly aging society, economic slowdown', energy shortages, and environmental degradation. In view of the increasing U.S.-PRC rivalry, Seoul's failure to deal successfully with this myriad of security threats could risk not only its own peace and prosperity but also those of the region and even the world. Byung Kwan Kim, General (retired), ROK Army, was the inaugural Koret Fellow at Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center during 2008-2009. He is a former Deputy Commander of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command and Commander of the Ground Component Command. Gi-Wook Shin is the director of Shorenstein APARC in Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is also a professor of sociology at Stanford, and the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Chair of Korean Studies. David Straub has been associate director of the Korean Studies Program at Shorenstein APARC since 2008, following one year as a Pantech Fellow. A retired Senior Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. Department of State, Straub's 30-year diplomatic career focused on Northeast Asian affairs, including service as the department's director of Korean and Japanese affairs. --Book Jacket.