David Wright

Some analysts have argued that the United States should isolate and weaken the “outlaw” North Korean regime in the hopes of forcing either its reform or its collapse. In the following viewpoint, David Wright argues that a collapse of the North Korean government would be a dangerous development. A better foreign policy approach would be to engage with North Korea politically and economically in order to induce it to cooperate more with other nations. He analyzes the 1994 Agreed Framework between North Korea and the United States, in which North Korea agreed to limits on its nuclear weapons program in exchange for foreign assistance in building two commercial nuclear power facilities. He argues that the arrangement, while not perfect, has achieved its main goals of preventing...