Special Reports

Instability and Regime Change: Why and How Are Regimes Ruined?

Despite expectations from many observers that the North Korean regime would collapse after the Cold War, it has survived two leadership changes, decades of international [Read More]

The Way Ahead: North Korea Policy Recommendations for the Trump Administration

North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test in September 2016 and over 20 ballistic missile tests this past year, highlighting the failure of US policy to stop the growing [Read More]

The Arab Spring and North Korea

This first report of The North Korea Instability Project examines the causes and consequences of the Arab Spring popular revolutions and discusses their relevance to and [Read More]

"The Nuclear Security Summit: Progress Report," by Michelle Cann, Kelsey Davenport and Sarah Williams

In the lead up to the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit in 2012, the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS published a paper reporting on the implementation of the national commitments pledged [Read More]

Review of Previous ROK Government Policies for Reunification and Future Policy Options in View of German Reunification

Despite many differences between Korea and Germany, it may be useful to draw lessons from Germany’s reunification for several reasons. First, it was a peaceful process without [Read More]

"Nuclear Security: Seoul, the Netherlands and Beyond," by Kenneth N. Luongo and Michelle Cann

The scope of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) has evolved since the process was initiated in 2010. The NSS originally focused only on fissile materials, but now also addresses [Read More]

"Cell Phones in North Korea," by Yonho Kim

The North Korean regime has maintained an iron grip on its society over the past decades by essentially isolating its people from the outside world. However, maintaining a total [Read More]

"Labor Standards and South Korean Employment Practices in North Korea," by Marcus Noland (March 11, 2014)

By 2012, South Korean firms employed more than 50,000 workers in North Korea. Survey data indicate that the North Korean government has successfully circumscribed exposure of [Read More]

"The ABCs of North Korea's SEZs," by Andray Abrahamian

In recent years, North Korea has put greater emphasis on economic growth, resuming economic experimentation and putting in place new measures to try to attract foreign [Read More]

"Tumen Triangle Tribulations: The Unfulfilled Promise of Chinese, Russian and North Korean Cooperation," by Andray Abrahamian

The Tumen Triangle region-where North Korea, China and Russia meet-is, in many ways, the story of regional integration being held back by the political concerns of Pyongyang, [Read More]

The Future of North Korean Nuclear Delivery Systems

Pyongyang’s inventory of delivery systems is a key factor in considering North Korea’s nuclear future. While its current inventory is well developed, although limited to old [Read More]

North Korea’s Development of a Nuclear Weapons Strategy

North Korea’s Development of a Nuclear Weapons Strategy For almost six decades, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) has pursued a nuclear [Read More]

North Korea’s Evolving Nuclear Strategy

Over the past two decades, North Korea’s nuclear program has grown from a proliferation problem to North Korea’s Evolving Nuclear Strategy a military threat to its [Read More]

Alliance Military Strategy in the Shadow of North Korea’s Nuclear Futures

Alliance Military Strategy in the Shadow of North Korea’s Nuclear Futures In the early decades of the Cold War when North Korea maintained only a large conventional force, [Read More]

Nuclear North Korea: How Will it Behave?

Nuclear North Korea: How Will it Behave? Much of the academic literature and policy thinking about proliferation makes the simple distinction between nuclear and non-nuclear [Read More]

Implications for US Extended Deterrence and Assurance in East Asia

North Korea’s burgeoning nuclear program is placing greater demands on US extended deterrence and also raising questions in Seoul and Tokyo about the robustness of US [Read More]

The Future Impact of North Korea’s Emerging Nuclear Deterrent on Nuclear Nonproliferation

The Future Impact of North Korea’s Emerging Nuclear Deterrent on Nuclear Nonproliferation The emergence of North Korea’s nuclear deterrent has been a grievous blow to [Read More]

Positive Economic Inducements in Future Nuclear Negotiations with North Korea

Positive Economic Inducements in Future Nuclear Negotiations with North Korea Any future negotiations with North Korea will need to consider the role of economic incentives and [Read More]

"Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia: The North Korean Nuclear Issue and the Way Ahead"

  North Korea conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test in September 2016. It is also making significant progress on its delivery systems, rapidly expanding [Read More]

Assessing the Risk of Regime Change in North Korea

North Korea watchers are going to be scrutinizing the country very closely in the coming months for any sign that the ruling Kim Jong Un regime is feeling the effects of new and [Read More]

Compromising Connectivity: Information Dynamics between the State & Society in a Digitizing North Korea

In 2012, A Quiet Opening:  North Koreans in a Changing Media Environment described the effects of the steady dissolution of North Korea’s information blockade. Precipitated [Read More]

Assessing the Risk of Regime Change in North Korea

Despite expectations from many observers that the North Korean regime would collapse after the Cold War, it has survived two leadership changes, decades of international [Read More]

Insurgency in the DPRK? Post-regime Insurgency in Comparative Perspective

Instability in the DPRK could have many sources, ranging from internal political strife to economic collapse to a renewal of intense armed conflict with the ROK and its allies. [Read More]

Future Directions in the DPRK's Nuclear Weapons Program: Three Scenarios for 2020

Future Directions in the DPRK's Nuclear Weapons Program: Three Scenarios for 2020, David Albright Like many secret nuclear weapons programs, the DPRK goes to great lengths to [Read More]

North Korea’s Nuclear Futures Project: Technology and Strategy

Since the end of the Korean War, the United States has grappled with the security challenge posed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. An increasingly important [Read More]

"Growth and Geography of Markets in North Korea," by Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

Markets have grown to become an integral part of the North Korean economy ever since the famine of the 1990s and the breakdown of the planned economy. Across the country, most [Read More]

"Missile Negotiations with North Korea: A Strategy for the Future," a USKI Special Report

While public attention has been focused on restarting denuclearization talks with North Korea, an important component of any renewed dialogue with Pyongyang will be controlling [Read More]

"Foreign Assistance: Different Strokes for Different Folks," by Jean Aden, Ph.D.

Foreign Assistance: Different Strokes for Different Folks, is the first of a series of reports commissioned by the US-Korea Institute SAIS to assess South Korea’s issues and [Read More]

State of the World Economy, 2011-2012: Whither or Wither?

On November 18, 2010, the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS and the Korea Institute of Finance, sponsored by the Asian Studies Program at SAIS and the JoongAng Ilbo, hosted the one-day [Read More]

Nuclear Security 2012: Challenges of Proliferation and Implication for the Korean Peninsula

Distributed among some 40 countries around the world, there is enough plutonium and highly enriched uranium to produce some 120,000 nuclear bombs, and a considerable portion of [Read More]

Northeast Asia in Afghanistan: Whose Silk Road?

The continuing security vacuum, political instability, and economic listlessness in Afghanistan, stand as a testament to the limits of American power and the need to enroll the [Read More]

Silent Partners: Chinese Joint Ventures in North Korea

China is considered North Korea’s economic lifeline. Chinese aid, trade and investment is critical to North Korea’s social stability and economic productivity and a key source [Read More]

NKDB White Paper on North Korean Human Rights 2010

The North Korean Database's White Paper on North Korean Human Rights 2010 is the 4th edition of the series published by NKDB starting in 2007. This publication is based on [Read More]

Pursuing Peace While Advancing Rights: The Untried Approach to North Korea

"Pursuing Peace While Advancing Rights: The Untried Approach to North Korea" argues that the reigning paradigm—the idea that either centrally involved nation-states seek to [Read More]

USKI Congressional Scorecard 2009

The USKI Congressional Scorecard 2009 identifies relevant legislation in the 111th United States Congress pertaining U.S.-Korea relations and the Korean-American community. At [Read More]

U.S. Strategy Towards North Korea: Rebuilding Dialogue and Engagement

A U.S. policy based on containment and isolation alone only concedes that North Korea will remain nuclear-armed and that its weapons programs will further develop. That, in turn, [Read More]

Flood Across the Border: China’s Disaster Relief Operations and Potential Response to a North Korean Refugee Crisis

Flood Across the Border: China’s Disaster Relief Operations and Potential Response to a North Korean Refugee Crisis, by Drew Thompson and Carla Freeman, considers the planning, [Read More]

DPRK Economic Statistics Report

In March 2009, the DPRK Economic Forum, a program of the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, released the "DPRK Economic Statistics Project Report," written by Mika [Read More]

The Changing Nature of Foreign Direct Investment in Korea: Challenges to Economic Policy

"The Changing Nature of Foreign Direct Investment in South Korea,"  a three-part series by Arthur Alexander Foreign direct investment (FDI), defined as sufficient company [Read More]