Relations between North Korea and the United States have been historically and currently hostile. The two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. Instead, they have adopted an indirect diplomatic arrangement using neutral intermediaries. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang is the U.S. protecting power and provides limited consular services to U.S. citizens. North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), does not have an embassy in Washington, D.C., but is represented in the United States through its mission to the United Nations in New York City which serves as North Korea's de facto embassy.
The source of the hostilities dates back to the Korean War in which both countries fought on opposite sides. Since the armistice was signed, areas of contention have since revolved around North Korea's nuclear weapons program and missile tests, North Korea's human rights record, U.S. sanctions against North Korea, and military exercises held by the U.S. and South Korea. Despite no formal diplomatic relations, both sides have maintained contact to deescalate tensions. According to the policy objectives of the U.S. State Department, "Peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula is the ultimate goal for the United States in its relationship with the DPRK".
Defining issues of contention
In recent years relations have been largely defined by heavy U.S. military presence in South Korea, joint U.S.–South Korea military exercises in the South China Sea, US economic sanctions against North Korea for their nuclear program and North Korea's demand that the United States eliminate its nuclear arsenal that could reach the Korean peninsula.
North Korea has conducted six tests of nuclear weapons between 2006 and 2017. It has developed long-range missiles capable of striking targets thousands of miles away, possibly as far away as the continental United States, and threatened to strike the United States (as recently as 2013) and South Korea with nuclear weapons and conventional forces.
The United States' nuclear weapons program in nearby Guam consists of B-1B Lancer bombers and B-2 Spirit bombers capable of launching nuclear weapons "60 times more destructive than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki." From Guam, the U.S. conducts precision strike exercises to simulate a preemptive nuclear strike on North Korea.
Since the Korean War, the United States has maintained a strong military presence in South Korea with 28,500 troops, 90 Patriot missiles and five military bases.
The United States has not adopted a No First Use nuclear weapons policy. North Korea's stated policy position is that nuclear weapons "will never be abused or used as a means for preemptive strike", but if there is an "attempt to have recourse to military force against us" North Korea may use their "most powerful offensive strength in advance to punish them".
In March 2025, Kim Jong Un blamed the United States for instigating North Korea militarily and vowed retaliation.
Polling in the United States on bilateral relations
In a 2020 YouGov poll conducted in the run-up to the US presidential election, the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute (KEI) of America, which commissioned the poll, reported only 31% of respondents approved of President Donald Trump's diplomatic overtures to North Korea, though a senior director at KEI conjectured support for diplomatic relations was weakened by Trump's calling Kim Jong Un, North Korea's leader, a "friend" and saying "they fell in love with each other."
Support among the American public for US forces to defend South Korea has increased steadily. While it was at a mere 26% in 1990, it nearly tripled to 62% in 2017, and in 2020, more than six in 10 Americans viewed the U.S. military alliance with South Korea as advantageous, with over half wanting to maintain the US troop level at nearly 30,000 soldiers. In 2017, a majority of the American public also had a positive view of Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, who in 2018 supported a formal declaration to end the U.S.–North Korean war.
As relations with Korea waxed hot and cold under President Trump, American public opinion regarding North Korea likewise fluctuated sharply, and no clear picture emerges. In a 2020 Gallup Poll, only 12% of the Americans surveyed gave North Korea a positive rating.
A Harris poll published in 2023 found that 68% of United States respondents believed that Joe Biden should offer direct talks with Kim Jong Un. 58% agreed that the United States should offer North Korea with economic or diplomatic incentives in exchange for steps towards denuclearization.
In July 2024, North Korea dismissed Trump's claims of a close relationship with Kim Jong Un as ineffective, emphasizing that their bond didn't lead to substantial changes. Pyongyang reiterated that future DPRK-US relations depend on US actions, urging a shift in policy. Despite Trump's summits with Kim, no lasting diplomatic progress was achieved.
History
Early years
Following the United States expedition to Korea in 1871, the United States and Joseon established diplomatic relations under the 1882 Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce, and Navigation. In 1883, Joseon sent the first ever Korean special mission to the United States, also known in Korean as Bobingsa (보빙사; 報聘使). However, Japan assumed direction over Korean foreign affairs in 1905 and in 1910 began a 35-year period of colonial rule over Korea.
Following World War II, the United Nations divided Korea along the 38th parallel, intending this as a temporary measure. A breakdown in relations between the U.S. and USSR, however, prevented a reunification. As a result, in August 1945, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. divided control over the Korean Peninsula, with the Soviet Army and its proxies supporting a communist government in the North and the U.S. supporting a capitalist government in the South.
Each half was polarized politically: the USSR-backed North was led by the Communist Party, while U.S. general John Hodge handpicked far-right Syngman Rhee to lead the South. Initial talks in 1945–6 to achieve a unified, independent Korea were not successful. The U.S. petitioned the United Nations to find a resolution, and the UN concluded that elections should be held. In reality, only the South held an election, as the North refused to allow UN officials entry to supervise the election. Syngman Rhee was officially elected after ruling the South for several years already, and in turn Stalin's regime appointed Communist Kim Il-Sung without an election.
In 1948, two separate nations were established: the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the South, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the North. On January 1, 1949, the United States officially recognized the Republic of Korea as the sole legitimate government of Korea and established diplomatic relations on March 25 of that year.
Cold War
Pre–Korean War (1948–1950)
On September 9, 1948, Workers' Party of Korea leader Kim Il Sung declared the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; he promptly received diplomatic recognition from the Soviet Union, but not the United States. The U.S. did not extend, and has never extended formal diplomatic recognition to the DPRK. Kim Il-Sung's anti-American rhetoric often asserted that the U.S. was a capitalist and imperialist successor to Japan, Korea's colonial occupier from 1910 to 1945. In December 1950, the United States initiated economic sanctions against the DPRK under the Trading with the Enemy Act, which lasted until 2008.
Korean War (1950–1953)
On June 25, 1950, 75,000 soldiers from the Korean People's Army crossed the 38th Parallel to invade South Korea, starting the Korea War, the first military action of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. After two months, North Korea had nearly conquered South Korea, however, US-led United Nations forces were able to push them back and in October 1950, they invaded North Korea and advanced towards the Chinese border prompting a full-scale Chinese intervention which forced UN forces to retreat from North Korea. The final two years of the war turned into a war of attrition along the 38th parallel. An estimated three million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in what has been termed "The Forgotten War" sandwiched between World War II and the Vietnam War. American General Curtis LeMay, who was head of the Strategic Air Command during the war, stated in a 1988 interview to Air Force historians that "Over a period of three years or so we killed off, what, 20 percent of the population of Korea, as direct casualties of war or from starvation and exposure?" During the war, the U.S. carpet bombed North Korea, dropping 635,000 tons of bombs on Korea, including 32,557 tons of napalm — more than the United States used in the Pacific War against Japan during World War II.
Consideration of atomic bomb
In 1950, when President Harry S. Truman was concerned about the Chinese People's Volunteer Army seizing South Korea, he said dropping an atomic bomb on North Korea was under "active consideration." General Douglas MacArthur, who headed the United Nations Command during the Korean War, wanted to drop “between 30 and 50 atomic bombs ... strung across the neck of Manchuria” that would have “spread behind us ... a belt of radioactive cobalt.” B-29 bombers, capable of carrying atomic bombs, were sent to Guam, though the bombs lacked a plutonium core. Historians theorize the US, which had used atomic weapons at the end of WWII against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, chose not to use nuclear weapons during the Korean War for multiple reasons: fear of escalation to a third World War; opposition from U.S. allies; lack of large urban centers to target in North Korea.
Public opinion
Public support in the United States to commit ground troops to Korea was at first, remarkably high. In June 1950, 78% of Americans said they approved of Truman's decision to send military aid, and 15% disapproved. But by January 1951, public support for the war had plummeted to 38%.
Armistice
In 1953, the United Nations Command, North Korea, and China signed the Korean War Armistice Agreement for exchanging prisoners of war, marking a north–south boundary within a demilitarized zone, and suspending fighting. A formal peace treaty, however, was never signed.
In 1953, the U.S. signed a mutual security treaty, promising to defend South Korea from North Korean aggression by stationing U.S. troops along the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and including South Korea under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. The U.S. pledged to use nuclear weapons to deter and, if necessary, prevail in an attack on the South. In 1991, the U.S. removed its tactical nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula after North Korea conditioned international inspections on their removal.
Post–Korean War (1953–1991)
In the early 1960s, several American soldiers defected to North Korea. Only one defector, Charles Jenkins, returned to the U.S. and faced a U.S. military court, pleading guilty to charges of desertion and aiding the enemy. Jerry Parrish, Larry Abshier and James Dresnok died of natural causes in North Korea.
Some leafleting of North Korea was resumed after the heavy leafleting that took place in the Korean War, such Operation Jilli from 1964 to 1968. One leaflet was on one side a successful reproduction of a North Korean one won note, about six weeks' pay for an ordinary North Korean soldier, and on the other a safe conduct pass for defection to the south. The rationale was to allow soldiers to easily hide the pass, but the quality was sufficient for it to gain some use as a fraudulent banknote in North Korea.
On January 23, 1968, Korean People's Navy patrol boats intercepted the United States Navy spy ship USS Pueblo in disputed waters, capturing and transferring the crew of 83 men to Pyongyang for imprisonment and torture. After almost a year of coerced confessions, beatings and a staged news conference, the crew was released following a negotiated settlement in which the U.S. apologized and pledged to stop spying on North Korea.
On April 15, 1969, the U.S. Navy spy plane EC-121 was shot down over the Sea of Japan by North Korea; 31 American service men died. Historians theorize President Richard Nixon, embroiled in the Vietnam War, chose not to retaliate for fear of escalating the conflict to involve the Soviet Union and China.
On August 18, 1976, US Army Captain Arthur Bonifas and Lieutenant Mark Barrett were killed by the KPA with axes at Panmunjom when the Americans, over objections of North Koreans, continued trimming a tree that blocked the view of the United States Army–Republic of Korea Army military unit patrolling the Joint Security Area—an intensely guarded and combative area in the middle of the DMZ separating North and South Korea. President Gerald Ford responded with a show of force, authorizing DEFCON 3, a high state of military readiness. The North Korean government backed down and allowed the tree-cutting to go ahead in what the U.S. military termed "Operation Paul Bunyan." North Korean supreme leader Kim Il Sung said the incidents in the Joint Security Area were "regretful" but stopped short of meeting U.S. demands for a formal apology.