The Metamorphosis of U.S.-Korea Relations: The Korean Question Revisited

The book argues that the United States must normalize relations with North Korea to bring closure to the "Korean Question" and uphold its early commitment to peace and amity.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 26 February 2024
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

The book contends that the long history of America's interaction with Korea began with the signing of the Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce, and Navigation in 1882 and the establishment of the Seward-Shufeldt Line. William Seward and Robert Shufeldt shared a vision of achieving their American goal by opening Korea and extending the Seward-Shufeldt Line from Alaska to link it with the Philippines and the Samoan Islands, thus completing a perfect perimeter for the American era of the Pacific and for its dominance in the Asian market. Commodore Shufeldt's finishing touch on the plan for achieving American hegemony in the coming 20th century was initiating diplomatic and trading relations with Korea. The decline of China's sphere of influence over the Korean Peninsula and the fall of Russia's power in the region, with the consequential rise of Japan's power there, led to a change from the SS Line to the Roosevelts' Theodore-Franklin Line, the colonization of Korea, the division of Korea, the Korean War, and has brought America back nearly full circle to that first encounter in Pyeongyang, the regrettable General Sherman Incident in 1866. The book argues that the United States must uphold its early commitment to peace and amity by now normalizing relations with North Korea in order to bring closure to the "Korean Question."

Weight: 458g
Dimension: 228 x 150 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781498582834