North Korea: Conditions, Issues & U.S. Relations

North Korea has been among the most vexing and persistent problems in U.S. foreign policy in the post-Cold War period. The United States has never had formal diplomatic relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the official name for North Korea). Negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program have occupied the past three U.S. administrations, even as some analysts anticipated a collapse of the isolated authoritarian regime. North Korea has been the recipient of well over $1 billion in U.S. aid and the target of dozens of U.S. sanctions. This book provides background information on the negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program that began in the early 1990s under the Clinton Administration. It discusses other military and security developments involving North Korea. This book also includes information from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 2013 human rights report, and the 2012 international religious freedom report.