This book is a review of the changing relations among Korea (North or South Korea after division of the country in 1945), China, Russia/USSR, the United States, and Japan. These dynamic and evolving relationships can often be seen as triangular patterns of varying dimensions. The first section will focus on China-Korea relations, the ties that date back the farthest. In fact, China maintained a dominant relationship with Korea for nearly two millennia right up until the end of the 19th century. Then, after a half century of hiatus, China re-emerged on the scene during the Korean War to become a staunch supporter of the northern half, a relationship that would last through the 1980s. Since the early 1990s, however, China opted to pursue a "two-Koreas" policy rather than continue an exclusive relationship with Pyongyang. Twenty years later, China went back to tilting toward North Korea. Thus, since 1992, when China established normal diplomatic relations with South Korea, it has come to have a presence on the peninsula that is as strong as any other country including the United States.

The United States, for its part, became involved in Korean affairs almost by chance in the late 19th century. But the U.S.-South Korean alliance that developed after the Korean War of 1950-53 has proven to be a lasting and an effective one. Together, the trans-Pacific allies have competed quite successfully with the Sino-North Korean alliance for nearly half a century. Now the United States is making an effort to catch up with China in establishing ties with both Koreas. The one obstacle to achieving this objective is North Korea’s continued refusal to give up its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. Once this problem is resolved, the result could be a United States competing with China for a large presence on the Korean peninsula. This subject, the United States-Korea relations, will be the focus of the second section.

The North Korean nuclear issue is one that involves all the powers of the region and their policies and politics as well. It also informs how the dynamics of the triangular relations among China, the United States, and the two Koreas impact on relations between the two Koreas. This will be the launching point for the third section of this book which focuses on South Korea’s position between China and Japan.

The final essay deals with issues related to the Korean unification question. It discusses the history of the division and prospects for reunification. The essay on unification discusses why each of the stake-holders of the Korean question will either support or oppose Korea being reunified and, if it accepts such an eventuality, under what conditions.

The conclusion that will be drawn in this book is that this is all, in essence, a process by which several triangles merge into one multi-angular relations, so that each of the major powers involved in Korean affairs formulate its policies in the context of several triangular relations involving the other powers as well as Korea itself. As a result, they are coming to perceive Korea as one point of the diplomatic triangle. The three major powers?the U.S., China and Japan?also find that each is involved in another triangle together with each of the two Koreas of the divided Korea. Will this bring some of them, the United States and China, for example, head to head with each other over the Korean Peninsula? Or will there be a new kind of relationship in which the three actors maintain a healthy distance from one another and manage a peaceful and cooperative existence? The jury is still out on this question. But we could start by understanding how these triangular relationships have evolved to date.

[…]

Korea, because of its geopolitical condition as a country surrounded by powerful and ambitious neighboring powers, has experienced triangular relationships for many centuries, particularly between China and Japan. Through that kind of history, Koreans have acquired both the mentality and know-how regarding how to deal with the geo-political triangles. Sometimes they came out more intact than other times. Until 1900, Korea had had to recognize Chinese suzerainty through centuries. In the first half of the 20th century, Korea was colonized and ruled by Japan for 35 years. Afterwards, it became a divided country. The division has lasted for 75 years (until 2020) without the Koreans knowing when and whether they would be reunited. Throughout its centuries-long history, triangles of powers related to Korea have kept emerging and evolving. Essays in this book describe the politics of Korea triangles and how Koreans have handled them, particularly during the post-World War II period of 1945-2020.

These “essays” are a collection of slightly edited versions of texts I prepared over several decades?my commemorative lectures, book chapter contribution, conference keynote speeches, and a concluding chapter written specifically for this volume. As such, they were written at different times and on situations of different periods in history. Therefore, the realities and circumstances of each “triangle” may be different and specific depending upon when the “essay” was written” and what period it is dealing with. All of the essays were written during the 40-year period of 1980 to 2020.

However, there is one thread that goes through the whole volume. It is the theme that Korea as a nation and Koreans as a people have had to go through and meet the challenge of walking and treading a tight rope of the triangular relationships they were engaged in among the surrounding powers and have had to find a way to survive and thrive. The essays will hopefully tell how well they have done, are doing, and will do.