The korean conundrum : America's troubled relations with north and south Korea.

For more than fifty years one of America's key security commitments has been to protect South Korea from North Korea. A product of hapenstance brought on by the end of World War II and frozen in time by the Cold War, the division of the peninsula once played a key role in America's containment of global communism. Now, more than 13 years after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of communism as a serious threat to liberal democracy, the tensions between the two Koreas are a problem from another era. With massive armaments on the peninsula,North Korea's nuclear ambitions, and a sizable contingent of U.S. forces added to the mix, Korea remains an unstable and dangerous flashpoint. The United States seems to be heading toward a confrontation with North Korea, as Koreans in the South and nations around the world anxiously witness mounting tension. Carpenter and Bandow take a look at the twin crises now afflicting U.S. policy in East Asia: the reemergence of North Korea's nuclear weapons program and the growing anti-American sentiment in South Korea. They question whether Washington's East Asia security strategy makes sense with American forces spread thin by the Iraq war and with the looming prospect of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea becoming nuclear hostages. Carpenter and Bandow put forth the most provocative solution yet to this gnarled and dangerous situation.