To many Americans, the most familiar images of North Korean leaders are crazed, cartoonish caricatures.

“But are they really?” said Stuart Thorson, a professor of political science and international relations who runs Syracuse University’s academic exchange with North Korea. “We just don’t know.”

Having a better understanding of North Korean people could prove valuable to the United States as tensions between the two countries rise. Since North Korea launched its third nuclear test in February, the relationship has remained uncertain, Thorson said.

In addition, the United States announced it’s speeding up the deployment of a missile defense system to Guam two years ahead of schedule to protect American forces stationed there as a precautionary move, The New York Times reported April 3.

Secretary of State John Kerry has already asked China, an important ally of North Korea, to help more with resolving the crisis, The New York Times reported April 13.

Adding to the United States’ anxiety is its inability to accurately read North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Thorson said. This lack of insight comes from the relatively new leadership, as well as the United States isolating itself from North Korea, he said.

This crisis is the latest incident in a volatile region, which has seen recent leadership changes in both North and South Korea. The United States has been running joint military drills with South Korea and has flown B-2 stealth bombers over the country as a part of its security agreement, which promises that the United States would defend both South Korea and Japan in the event of a threat from North Korea, Thorson said.

The flyovers make North Koreans nervous, he said, as they are a reminder of the U.S. carpet-bombing that destroyed much of their country during the Korean War.

“Having spoken with North Koreans, I think it is the case that North Korea, whether rightly or wrongly, feels threatened by the array of forces lined against it,” Thorson said.

President Barack Obama’s election in 2008 raised hopes for a resolution with North Korea, said Frederick Carriere, a Pacific Century Institute senior fellow at the Korean Peninsula Affairs Center at SU.

The Obama administration reached a “Leap Day Deal” in 2012, which would have required North Korea to suspend major parts of its nuclear program in exchange for food aid from the United States, he said.

But the deal fell apart when North Korea used a missile to launch a satellite, and the United States withdrew its aid. While the United States claimed the deal included restrictions applied to satellite launches, North Korea responded that there was no such provision, Carriere said.

“That was the last straw on the camel’s back for the North Koreans,” he said.

Another area of concern to North Korea is that the United States is one of the few countries that refuses to recognize North Korea diplomatically, Carriere said.

Refusing to recognize North Korea is a concern because the United States has had a history of “aiding and abetting” efforts to displace leadership it does not approve of, Carriere said, citing Iran as an example.

Both Carriere and Thorson said this situation lacks an easy resolution. But Thorson, who called himself an optimist, said North Korea appears to be softening its response.

The United States could benefit from a better engagement with North Korea in the form of exchanges, like the one SU currently has with Kim Chaek University of Technology in Pyongyang. Such an exchange, he said, would give the United States a sense of how North Korea views issues.

These exchanges can work, Carriere said, as long as the interest is mutual and the relationship organic.

Said Carriere: “The one-dimensional nature of thinking about the other country begins to fall apart.”

Published on April 17, 2013 at 1:00 am

Contact Natsumi: najisaka@syr.edu