Issue Brief
Vol.147, No.9, 2026
Status-Quo or Revisionism_Decoding North Korea’s Hostile Two-State via USFK
- Date
- 2026-04-29
- Authors
- Soo-Ho Lim
- Keyword
- Korean Peninsula
-
abstractThis paper examines whether North Korea's "hostile two-state doctrine" reflects a status quo or revisionist orientation by analyzing whether and if so, why Pyongyang’s position on the presence of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) has changed. The analysis finds that the doctrine aligns more closely with a status-quo orientation and may be interpreted as a de facto official acknowledgment of a position long articulated only in closed-door discussions: that North Korea tolerates the continued presence of USFK. Although the doctrine is not unrelated to North Korea's advancing nuclear capabilities, interpreting it as evidence of a revisionist orientation conflates national strategy with military strategy. From this perspective, strengthening deterrence against North Korea at the military-strategic level and pursuing peaceful coexistence at the national-strategic level are not inherently contradictory within South Korea's policy toward North Korea.
