ABSTRACT
The Korean War left a legacy of armed truce and the most militarised border in the world, euphemistically known as the ‘demilitarised’ zone. The Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea were both a product of the Cold War, but their antagonism has outlived it and continues to produce controversy. North Korea is poised to accept the inevitability of opening up to the world economy, entailing domestic reform in the future. The annual debate on the Korean Question in the United Nations General Assembly was a barometer of the general state of competition for international legitimacy between the rival Korean regimes. North Korea’s economic crisis developed in tandem with the momentous changes in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The economic crisis of North Korea determined that it had only limited time during which it could play the nuclear card.
