U.S. Policy Toward the Korean Peninsula: Independent Task Force Report

From its early days, the Obama administration has had to grapple with North Korea's provocative missile and nuclear tests.

During the past two decades, U.S. policy efforts to roll back North Korea's nuclear developments have met with frustration and failure. At the same time, South Korea's economic development and political transition to democracy have changed the U.S. alliance with South Korea.

This report assesses U.S. policy toward both North and South Korea and crafts an integrated approach to the peninsula as a whole. It analyzes prospects for bilateral and multilateral diplomacy with North Korea, the stability of the North Korean regime, U.S. military and economic ties to South Korea, and the implications of internal changes in both Koreas for regional security in Asia. The report offers specific recommendations designed to reduce the threat posed by North Korea and offers a coherent and comprehensive approach to the peninsula as part of an overall strategy toward Asia.

Charles L. Pritchard is the president of the Korea Economic Institute. He is the author of Failed Diplomacy: The Tragic Story of How North Korea Got the Bomb (Brookings, 2007).

John H. Tilelli Jr. is chairman and CEO of Cypress International, Inc.

Scott A. Snyder is adjunct senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and director of the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy and senior associate of Washington programs in the international relations program of the Asia Foundation.