Engaging North Korea: The Role of Economic Statecraft

This monograph reviews the efficacy of economic statecraft vis-a-vis North Korea, with a particular focus on the use of santions and inducements on the part of the United States in seeking to achieve non-proliferation and wider foreign policy objectives. Two structural constraints operate: North Korea's particularly repressive state, with a narrowing governing coalition; and the country's changing economic relations. As an empirical matter, there is little evidence that sactions had effect, or did so only in conjuction with inducements. However, inducements did not yield significant results either, in part because of severe credibility and sequencing problems in the negotiations.