ABSTRACT
In the case of North-East Asia, with the exception of North Korea, regional relations were improving. In April 2009, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Obama announced the establishment of a bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue. North Korea’s choice of tactics to bargain with the USA during early 2009 reflected a desire to attract the attention of the Obama administration and test its North Korea policy, as well as the situation in East Asia. North Korea had pursued and successfully achieved symbolic peaceful coexistence during the final months of the Bush administration, thanks to its removal from the Department of State’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The Kim Jong Il government engaged in brinkmanship and avoided the Six-Party Talks regime and alignment to balance the USA. The decision by the Kim Jong Il government to conduct a nuclear test, thus once again engaging in brinkmanship, hinted at a poor use of historical analogies.
