“Critical Engagement”: British Policy toward the DPRK

"'Critical Engagement': British Policy toward the DPRK" examines the United Kingdom's policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The policy known as "critical engagement" has been applied for over 14 years. 

"UK efforts are not going to have the immediate result we all want. However, they do show...that it is possible to carry out engagement and hopefully reduce the chasm between DPRK thinking and the rest of the world," author Mike Cowin writes. He suggests that the British approach is similar to that advised by a Stanford research team in Tailored Engagement.

Cowin wrote an earlier policy paper on relations between the DPRK and the European Union in March 2015.

Mike Cowin is the 2014-15 Pantech Fellow in the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Before coming to Stanford, he served as the deputy head of mission at the British Embassy in Pyongyang, North Korea. He has also served in the British embassies in Seoul from 2003 to 2007, and in Tokyo from 1992 to 1997.