ABSTRACT
The US alliance with South Korea rests on Cold War assumptions that should be reexamined to conform to post-Cold War realities. This chapter presents the author's own assessment of the collapse issue and discusses specific US economic and security policy options, based on five visits to North Korea since 1972 and continuing contacts with fellow North Korea watchers in Japan, China, Russia, and other countries. South Korea has much more significant economic links with Russia and China than the North does. The US has become a hostage to entrenched right-wing military and political leaders in the South who favor policies completely incompatible with a soft landing. An American policy designed to promote a "soft landing" would include urgent action to help alleviate the food shortage. Apart from economic sanctions and food aid, the most important issue facing American policy makers in Korea is how to replace the 43-year-old armistice with more permanent arrangements that will ensure peace in the peninsula.
