ABSTRACT
This chapter explores contemporary developments in Israel’s relations with the two Korean states. It begins in the early 1990s when Israel reopened its embassy in Seoul and also sent delegations to North Korea. The chapter offers a historical background to Israel’s contacts with the Korean Peninsula, examines Israel-South Korea ties against the backdrop of a prevalent narrative that stresses historical and cultural affinities between the two states and peoples, and looks into the overt-covert dynamics that typify the limited contacts between Israel and North Korea. It is argued that although Israel’s bilateral contacts with the two Koreas have been completely different and are infused with different sets of sentiments, in the final analysis, pragmatism has been a common dominant denominator in both cases.
