how does Korea (North and South) tend to act when it comes to foreign
policy.  (i.e- do they intervene, do they sit back and care only about
themselves and never get involved, do they only get involved when it
poses a threat to themselves or is in their national interests or do
they get involved just to help the world?

---

Clarification of Question by jsc0006-ga on 08 Dec 2002 12:55 PST

Just Korea, sorry.

Dear jsc0006, 

Foreign policy does not summarise itself in interventions  or trying
to "help the world". It is much more complex, and has to do with the
relationships this country maintains, with its alliances and foes.

The Korean Peninsula is divided into two countries since the end of
the Second World War (you could read more about it in "The Korean
Enigma" http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/korea/kdivided.html).

North Korea (formed 1948) is a totalitarian "Sultanistic" regime, who
maintains close relationships with China, the USSR (when it existed),
Iraq, Iran, Syria, and other "Rogue States", as the US defines these
states, who would not adhere to international laws and treaties, and
are involved in terrorism and in the production and trade in ABC
(Atomic Biological Chemical) weapons.

It is a closed country, and a very poor one, and although maintaining
good relations with the countries abovementioned, it is not in the
capability to send international aid anywhere.

South Korea is a pro-Western republic. It maintains very good
relationships with the United States and the European Union, and its
relationships with Japan, which is both Koreas' arch-enemy, are
getting better. South Korea is more involved in the international
arena and in aid operations.

Naturally, the two countries are enemies of each other. However, there
were some moves towards reconcilliation in the last few years.

Read more: 
KOREA Division, Reunification, and U.S. Foreign Policy by Martin
Hart-Landsberg
http://www.monthlyreview.org/koreac8.htm 

CIA about South Korea
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ks.html

CIA about North Korea
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/kn.html

I have searched Google and the CIA World Factbook for the terms "North
Korea" and "South Korea".

I hope that answered your question. Please contact me with any
clarifcation request. I'd be pleased to answer your clarifications
before you rate the answer.

I would think North and South Korea would be a better clarification.

Simply, North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK) 
until recently (i.e. the last 5 years) maintained diplomatic contact
with only a few countries, namely China and the U.S.S.R.

South Korea (Republic of Korea, ROK) has maintained close ties with
the U.S. and by extension the Western world.  S. Korea and Japan have
traditionally been the two Asian countries that have been open to
commerce, diplomacy, and other agreements with Western countries such
as the USA, Canada, the UK, France, etc.

However, an interesting note is that neither country was a member of
the United Nations until 17 September 1991.

For more information, I would check the following links I just got
from a google search.

http://www.korea.net/learnaboutkorea/koreaintheworld/historicalbackground.html
http://www.korea.net/learnaboutkorea/koreaintheworld/korea'sinternational.html
[Note:  www.korea.net is the official english frontpage of the ROK
(South Korean) government.]

An article about US-DPRK (N. Korean) Relations from the Nautilus
Institute can be found here:
http://www.nautilus.org/security/Korea/DPRKScenarios.html

Mr.Protagonist

I would have to clarify politicalguru's statement about South
Korean-Japanese relations.

When in either Korea, although U.S. citizens rarely travel into N.
Korea, it is unwise to mention Japan to anyone over the age of 45. 
While the Nazi atrocities have received plenty of coverage in the US,
what the Japanese military did during World War II could be also be
considered atrocious.  This anti-Japanese sentiment is still shared
throughout parts of SE Asia.  However, the Koreans comprise the brunt
of it.

Although Pearl Harbor marks the official start of the USA's war
against Japan, Japan had done much conquering in the years prior.  It
controlled Korea (both North and South) from 1910-1945.  During this
period, Korea citizens were often used as slave labor, Korean women
were often abducted to serve as concubines, and Korean language and
literature was suppressed in favor of Japanese.

However, I would disagree that this viewpoint is common to all Koreans
or Japanese.  For most of the population, WWII is only history, and
many Koreans view Japan as a rival only in the economic sense.

Where Japan has Sony, Korea counters with Samsung.  Honda is met with
Hyundai.  Mitsubishi with Daewoo, etc.

You can argue that Japan's GDP is over nine times larger than S.
Korea's, (http://www.oecd.org/pdf/M00018000/M00018516.pdf), but other
statistics would point to the two being equal players in the high-tech
field.

According to the International Telecommunications Union, South Korea
boasts the 4th largest number of internet users per capita.  5,106.83
out of every 10,000 Koreans use the Internet, a number higher than the
U.S. (4,995.10) or Japan (4,547.10).

If you want further signs of recent Japanese-Korean cooperation, look
no further than the 2002 World Cup which was jointly hosted by S.
Korea and Japan -- the first ever joint hosting in the event's 72 year
history.



Much of what I've based this statement on comes from a BBC News
article that can be found here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1268800.stm


Additionally, evidence of each countries foreign policy has graced
Google News (http://news.google.com) in the last two weeks.

First, a North Korean freighter carrying 15 SCUD missiles was stopped
by Spanish and US forces on its way to Yemen.

N. Korea tested its ballistic missile technology on August 31, 1998 by
firing its Taepo-Dong I missile over the Pacific.  One stage of the
missile landed on the eastern side of Japan, the other stage landed
hundreds of miles away on the western side of Japan.

Needless to say, Japan was not pleased.
(http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/asiapcf/9808/31/nkorea.missle.03/)

The Google News cluster containing links to news articles about the
Yemeni SCUD sale can be found at:
(http://news.google.com/news?q=cluster:www.voanews.com/article.cfm%3FobjectID%3DCC0A0851-5D0B-4F6B-AE44063B16643975)

On the Southern side of the De-militarized Zone, South Korea elected a
new president.  What is especially interesting about the new
president-elect is that his policies reflect a more stance of
increased engagement with North Korea, as well as a restructuring of
the US-Korean alliance to give Seoul a greater say in how the two
countries deal with Pyongyang.  Oh, and when you refer to the Korean
government, don't refer to them as Seoul anymore, because the new
president, Roh Moo-hyun, wants to move the capital to Taejon for
economic development purposes.

Google News cluster on the election of Roh Moo-hyun
(http://news.google.com/news?num=30&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=cluster:news%2eft%2ecom%2fservlet%2fContentServer%3fpagename%3dFT%2ecom%2fStoryFT%2fFullStory%26c%3dStoryFT%26cid%3d1039523851688)

CNN Special Report on the Two Koreas:
http://asia.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2002/korea/

CNN Factbox outlining Roh's campaign policies
http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/19/skorea.election.policy.reut/

I hope this helps you in your research.

Mr.Protagonist