ABSTRACT
For decades the North Korean regime has been a puzzle and a problem for most of its neighbors. Its military activities and most recently its missile tests and nuclear programs have precipitated varying degrees of condemnation by all countries in the region. But there has been widespread disagreement on how best to wean North Korea from its longstanding policy directions. For many, the solutions lie in transforming the North Korean economy through a mixture of internal reforms based perhaps on the successful changes in China and Vietnam as well as greater integration with the other, more successful, economies of the region. Yet the North has moved only episodically in such directions, far more often demonstrating greater concerns about regime preservation than about improving the performance of the domestic economy.
