North-South Korean economic relations.(North Korea: Economic Leverage and Policy Analysis)(Report)

Economic relations have been a major route for opening relations between North and South Korea. Seoul has a major stake in relations with the DPRK and the outcome of the current Six-Party Talks. (145) It seeks a "soft landing" for the current standoff over the North's nuclear program--one that will lead to a lessening of tensions and steady integration of North Korea's economy into the global economic and financial system. As with other countries divided by ideology and a history of hostilities as "pawns" on the chess board of the Cold War, the two halves of the peninsula face numerous issues to be resolved before they can normalize relations--let alone contemplate reunification.

South Korea has much to gain from rapprochement with the North. Its strategy has been to use its economic leverage and family reunions (families separated by the division of the Korean …