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Editorial Review Product Description
Nearly half a century after the fighting stopped, the 1953 Armistice has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War. While Russia and China withdrew the last of their forces in 1958, the United States maintains 37,000 troops in South Korea and is pledged to defend it with nuclear weapons. In Korean Endgame, Selig Harrison mounts the first authoritative challenge to this long-standing U.S. policy. Harrison shows why North Korea is not - as many policymakers expect - about to collapse. And he explains why existing U.S. policies hamper North-South reconciliation and reunification. Assessing North Korean capabilities and the motivations that have led to its forward deployments, he spells out the arms control concessions by North Korea, South Korea, and the United States necessary to ease the dangers of confrontation, centering on reciprocal U.S. force redeployments and U.S. withdrawals in return for North Korean pullbacks from the thirty-eighth parallel. Similarly, he proposes specific trade-offs to forestall the North's development of nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems, calling for the withdrawal of the U.S. nuclear umbrella in conjunction with agreements to denuclearize Korea embracing China, Russia, and Japan.The long-term goal of U.S. policy, he argues, should be the full disengagement of U.S. combat forces from Korea as part of regional agreements insulating the peninsula from all foreign conventional and nuclear forces. A veteran journalist with decades of extensive firsthand knowledge of North Korea and long-standing contacts with leaders in Washington, Seoul, and Pyongyang, Harrison is perfectly placed to make these arguments. Throughout, he supports his analysis with revealing accounts of conversations with North Korean, South Korean, and U.S. leaders over thirty-five years. Combining probing scholarship with a seasoned reporter's on-the-ground experience and insights, he has given us the definitive book on U.S. policy in Korea - past, present, and future. ... Read more Customer Reviews (2) 
Commentary on Selig Harrison's Korean Endgame
For a long time I have been searching for a book that addresses the potentially explosive issue of Korea, and even more specifically North Korea. Is Kim Jong Il a madman? What is he seeking? For answers to these questions, and even more imporant ones, this is a book worth reading.
Because I served in Korea during the war, I am more than a little interested in what takes place there. Mr. Harrison's evenhanded account of events over the past few years gave me a better understanding of the Korean situation. If only certain elements in the US government gave this a read, I think all of us would benefit.
Concise and Well-Researched
I went into this book with the normal American preconceptions about North Korean stability and their aggressive track record.The author takes the time to lay out the reasons - and offers concrete steps for all sides that, if carried out, would end the Korean War once and for all.Significant research went into this book.I have yet to find a more well-researched and documented presentation on the historical and present state of Korea, and what it will take to finally declare the end of the war and reduce the $40B spent anually to drag it out.
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