North Korea features highly on the agenda of the main actors in East Asia and around the globe, and many large foreign policy initiatives have been undertaken since the structural constraints of the Cold War started to loosen in the early 1990s. The centrality of North Korea has been particularly emphasized by the country's suspected development of nuclear weapons which is regarded as one of the largest de-stabilising factors in the Asia-Pacific region.

This comprehensive book analyzes the formation of the North Korea policy in the context of great power relations in East Asia,...