n of the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang hoped the anti-nuclear card would force withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons and troops from the South--and eventually undermine South Korean stability and pave the way for reunification with the South. 6 FRATERNAL SUPPORTThe third determinant of North Korean policy was based on Pyongyang's presumption that it would receive economic and other support from fellow communist countries. Since 1953, Kim Il Sung has had to cope with the presence of U.S. forces in the South--the bitter and costly legacy of his failed unification venture in invading the South in June 1950. Rhetoric of military self-reliance notwithstanding, Kim's strategy for self-preservation presumed that Soviets and Chinese would render strong support for his eastern "outpost" of socialism. From its inception, North Korea has defined its friends and foes in terms of where they stand on anti-Americanism. Thus, North Korea was allied with Mao Tse-tung's China, which Kim Il Sung judged was more anti-American than the "revisionist" Soviet leadership was. Kim's 1962 decision to build a foundation for military self-reliance apparently was a function of his growing skepticism about the reliability of Moscow where his own national security was concerned. Nevertheless, military support from Moscow and Beijing was the centerpiece of Pyongyang's security environment, the crucial counterpoint to perceived U.S. threat. In the years after the Soviet collapse, Pyongyang has sought periodically to improve its sometimes cool relationship with China, now its only major source for economic and military support. But with China seeking expanded U.S. trade and investment and having normalized relations with Seoul in 1992, the North's security environment has grown increasingly precarious. Pyongyang's paranoia about its national security can be gauged in part by its shrill reactions to the annual U.S.-South Korean "team spirit" joint military exercise, but more i...
