ABSTRACT
As South Korea depended on the United States and Japan so North Korea depended on the Soviet Union and China for help in achieving its objectives: survival as a state, economic development, military modernization and ultimately the reunification of Korea on its own terms. Inextricably bound together by geography and history, the Soviet Union and North Korea have been uncomfortable bedfellows. The Soviet Union wants a friendly neighbor on its southern flank, and the importance of North Korea has increased since the Soviet break with China. The principal strategic function of North Korea for the Soviet Union has been to deny to a potential enemy the part of Korea adjoining Soviet territory. Although the land border is only 12 miles long, enemy use of North Korean airfields and ports and the basing of medium-range missiles on North Korean territory would pose a serious threat to Vladivostok, the principal Soviet naval base in the Pacific.
