ABSTRACT
U.S. policy toward the two states within the divided Korean nation has been shaped by many factors over the years since the Korean peninsula became enmeshed in cold-war tensions. Although Koreans have sound reasons to prefer that American policy makers with regard to Korea would guide their decisions primarily in response to circumstances and events on the peninsula, the United States is frequently motivated by pursuit of its own national interests vis-à-vis Korea, which are also determined by Korea’s regional setting and by U.S. domestic affairs. The period from mid-1999 to mid-2001-the focus of all the chapters in this volume-offers vivid examples of the multifaceted factors that shape U.S. perceptions of, and reactions to, inter-Korean relations. Though the United States clearly has been attentive to the inter-Korean dynamic, it also has been responsive to Chinese, Japanese, and Russian interactions with both Koreas, and has been strongly guided by its own domestic politics in an election cycle and a change of administrations in Washington.
