This study applies James D. Fearon's "Bargaining Theory" to explain the success and failure of the Six-Party Talks. During the six rounds of the Six-Party Talks from 2003 to 2007, the six parties (South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan...
This study applies James D. Fearon's "Bargaining Theory" to explain the success and failure of the Six-Party Talks. During the six rounds of the Six-Party Talks from 2003 to 2007, the six parties (South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia) discussed the methods to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program. In the course of the six-party talks, the participating countries were able to announce the 9.19 Joint Statement, which was a meaningful step toward the denuclearization of North Korea. This achievement was possible because the Six-Party Talks seemed to find the way to solve the issues that James D. Fearon suggested on his paper “Rationalist explains for war,” which are incomplete information, commitment problems, and issue indivisibility. However, in the following rounds of meetings, the six parties failed to implement the measures outlined in the Joint Statement, despite announcing the follow-up statements. This study suggests that 9.19 Joint Statement was a failure because the Six-Party talks failed to solve the incomplete information, commitment problems, and issue indivisibility.