Deceptive Bargaining and Nuclear Ambitions: Prospect Theory and North Korea's Decision to Go Nuclear

Abstract

If there is one place in the world where the cold war has not ended, it is the Korean Peninsula. An armistice terminated the Korean War between North Korea and the United States in 1953. Technically, North Korea is still at war with the United States and South Korea since no peace treaty has been signed between the former enemies. The end of the cold war did not bring peace to the peninsula. Instead, the North Korean nuclear crises starting in the early 1990s have threatened regional security for more than a decade. North Korea’s nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 further intensified antagonisms and hostilities between North Korea and the United States. The stability of the Korean Peninsula in particular and Northeast Asia in general is at stake.