Abstract
Skak, M. External Dynamics of the Korean Conflict: The Present Soviet Policy Reorientation. Cooperation and Conflict, XXIV, 1989, 19-33.
Great power policy dynamics are decisive determinants for developments within the Korean conflict, and this contribution focuses upon Soviet Korean policy in the framework of the present overall policy reorientation of the Soviet Union. The 1984 rapprochement between the USSR and North Korea serves as the point of departure, because observers saw this as an ominous sign, i.e. as a stimulus for North Korean and/or Soviet militancy. The point is, however, that North Korea is dependent upon the USSR, and the analysis of the new Soviet leadership's interest perception and actual policy in relation to Korea suggests serious strains in the Soviet-North Korean relationship. Soviet conduct in connection with the Seoul Olympics and Soviet-South Korean economic contacts are obvious signs of this, as is the non-militant Soviet approach to regional conflicts. None of the great powers have a significant interest in a new war between the two Koreas, not even in a peaceful reunification of Korea (with the possible exception of China). All of them can be assumed to have a vital interest in an inter-Korean détente (Germanization), which is an argument that the wise reunification policy of the Korean nation is the tactical and incremental one.
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