as about improving its economic performance. A collapse in the next several years could result if the North's economic performance continues to slide, particularly if food and energy shortages worsen. If Pyongyang's ambiguity on its nuclear program continues, resulting economic sanctions could hasten this crisis. U.S. POLICY APPROACHESCurrent U.S. policy is designed to firmly deter North Korea's military adventurism, while exploring contacts with Pyongyang to reach a negotiated settlement of the impasse over its refusal to allow nuclear inspections. Some U.S. officials believe that current U.S. policy toward the North ought to facilitate an end to Pyongyang's isolation and help promote a stable unification acceptable to both sides of the DMZ. But there remains substantial U.S. and South Korean suspicion about North Korea's motives in the current situation. To underscore its concern for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the United States maintains 37,000 troops in the South, an unresolved legacy of the Korean War. Although the United States has never formally recognized the DPRK, many analysts argue that an isolated and brooding North Korea may increase the risks of instability for the Korean Peninsula. It is not in U.S. interests to promote the rapid collapse of North Korea, according to a finding in a recent Washington roundtable, as the shock of a precipitous disintegration could severely affect South Korea's fragile democracy.26 Differences exist over how to draw Pyongyang out of isolation, but that U.S. policy approaches can take the form of engagement, pressure, and outwaiting. ENGAGEMENTA policy of engagement would presumably help to sound out Pyongyang's intentions, encourage its transparency and openness, and promote understanding for mutual confidence-building.26 This would be difficult, given Pyongyang's ingrained, exclusivist attitude toward foreigners and Americans, residual antipathy toward North Korea's invasio...
