The Korean Peninsula: A Northeast Asian Security Concern

North and South Korea have not responded to the New World Order-that Communism is dead and the Cold War Era is over. When the Berlin Wall collapsed and Germany became one nation, Korea emerged as the only divided country remaining in the world. Today, the Korean Peninsula remains divided by ideology, mutual mistrust of national leadership, the 155-mile DMZ, U.S. military presence, conflicting approaches to national reunification, and the North Korean nuclear issue. Thus, the traditional Cold War animosities and political, economic, military paradigms remain entrenched in a divided Korean peninsula. The U.S. Intelligence Community has identified an extensive nuclear center at Yongbyon, 50 miles north of Pyongyang, North Koreas capital, which appears to be a nuclear reactor and reprocessing site. The threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea is a serious regional security concern that will not be taken lightly by such countries as Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.