Browsing by Author "Yu, Tommi"

The current thesis analyses the reasons why Japan and North Korea have never entered into diplomatic relations and examines the prospects and opportunities for the normalization of their bilateral ties. The period of seven decades since Japanese colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula had ceased, has not been sufficient for either side to come up in good terms with history and politics. The existing historical tensions between the two nations and the absence of diplomatic relations has also constituted over the years to be an omnipresent threat to regional stability and security within the Northeast Asian region. This thesis focuses on both sides’ perceptions of conflict and further outlines and analyzes the priorities both Japan and North Korea strongly desire to retain within their bilateral agenda. Interviews carried out in 2010 and 2011 in Japan and North Korea constitute the empirical part of this study. Since all interviews were conducted not in the distant past, their impact on the thesis is significant but not self-sufficient; analysis of academic literature, press and official documents has been necessary to validate or cast aside main arguments in this thesis. The theoretical framework used in the entire study is the negotiation theory and its Integrative Bargaining Approach (IBA) that is also widely known as Interest-Based Bargaining (IBB). The most important feature of this theoretical framework is it provides a rationale for analyzing the Japan-North Korea ties by examination and inclusion of any issues while reducing them to a core of mutual interests, or shared interests with identifiable mutual gains. Normalization of diplomatic relations in the bilateral context of Japan and North Korea translates to practically enabling the two states to communicate with each other, ensuring certainty of diplomatic representation and interactions on more personal level that could transcend further to economic, cultural, socio-political and business realms. Therefore, by recognizing deductive processes in qualitative research, and by utilizing deductive qualitative research, the study suggests that there is a potential for both Japan and North Korea interests to be integrated in such manner, so to create joint value and attain the normalization of diplomatic relations. The qualitative data analysis suggests it has always been omnipresent chronic failure of negotiation efforts, outlining that in the past the parties have not identified shared interests and opportunities to realize mutual gains through trades across multiple issues, which gap this study is aimed to fill in. There are two key findings in this thesis. First, there are identifiable, shared interests and opportunities for realizing mutual gains, which could be used in initiating and nurturing negotiations between Japan and North Korea towards the goal for diplomatic normalization. Second, the IBA/IBB is the theoretical approach, prescribing proper techniques on how to reduce the bulk of multiple conflicts and enable engagement by the two neighboring states that reflects only issues in which they both recognize mutual interests and possible gains.