Building Confidence on the Korean Peninsula

This is the web platform for the SIPRI / CSS-ETH Zurich study on “Tools for Building Confidence On the Korean Peninsula”. The aim of the project was to examine the potential role of confidence-building measures (CBMs) on the Korean Peninsula.

North-East Asia faces a wide range of security challenges. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (ROK, South Korea) have lived as separate states since the end of the Korean War in 1953 without a full and formal peace treaty. Bilateral tension has also often been high between North Korea and the USA; and also China, Japan, and Russia are involved in the complex security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The project addresses the following question: what role can 'confidence building' techniques play in moving an initial deal on the most burning questions into a broader and lasting security regime - both for the Korean peninsula and its immediate neighborhood? The nuclear question is outside the main focus of this study, although it is addressed due to its major impact on the peninsula.

The report is divided into three parts: the first part describes CBMs and examines the present security situation on the Korean Peninsula. The second part offers a toolbox of individual CBMs. The third part presents the annex of the report, with existing agreements on CBMs related to the Korean peninsula, and a section on other international precedents of CBM agreements.

The full report as well as individual sections can be downloaded from this website.