What is USA's interests in North Korea?

dude, seriously read about the Korean war and understand the history.

NK has never got over the US involvement and it's pro-capitalist agenda hence all the hatred and threat to the US.

That is enough for the US (and other countries) to be very scared of this mental country led by a cray m fu*ker.

Plus there is all the human rights abuse etc. but this is obviously less important to the US than a nuke hitting NYC.

This is a bit off of the topic, but you should check out The Propaganda Game. The North Koreans have quite a take on geopolitics. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4206218/

Umm.. the fact that South Korea is a major economic power and a great friend of the USA... the fact that North Korea is one of the biggest violators of human rights in the world who enslaves and starves their people... the fact that North Korea is the largest currency counterfeiter in the world. We have many interests in keeping them in check.

Now to agree with earlier posters. You should read some history sometime.

very complicated

north korea is a buffer zone between the good guys (south korea) and the bad guys (china)

China is desperate to preserve NK in its current status because when it falls...millions of dirt poor, desperate people will flow into China and into SK.

And China knows that it would be just a matter of time before US troops were camped out on the border betwixt the newly unified korea and China.

This, the Chinese desperately do not want. So they will keep NK standing as long as possible.

the twist is that our ally, SK, doesn't want millions of useless NKers flooding them either. And SK doesn't have the trilliins needed to support a post NK state.

So there is some pressure from the 'good guys' side to keep NK upright.

To turn them into American controlled puppets.

Bill Bowerman urinated on Phil Knight.

agip wrote:

very complicated

north korea is a buffer zone between the good guys (south korea) and the bad guys (china)

China is desperate to preserve NK in its current status because when it falls...millions of dirt poor, desperate people will flow into China and into SK.

And China knows that it would be just a matter of time before US troops were camped out on the border betwixt the newly unified korea and China.

This, the Chinese desperately do not want. So they will keep NK standing as long as possible.

the twist is that our ally, SK, doesn't want millions of useless NKers flooding them either. And SK doesn't have the trilliins needed to support a post NK state.

So there is some pressure from the 'good guys' side to keep NK upright.

Good analysis. Don't forget Russia and Japan as well. A unified Korea would likely put bases (and by extension U.S. and Japanese interests) near the Russian border.

Does it have something to do with strategical points, like bases and stuff. I know they have military bases in both Japan and SK

Yeah he enjoyed it.

First, the Korean War ended only with an armistice and the US and NK are technically still at war---

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Armistice_Agreement

This makes it that much harder for the US just to walk away and pull out its forces in SK.

Second, the US has a defense treat with South Korea---

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/kor001.asp

The US has a similar treaty with Japan, just across the Sea of Japan from NK, and NK has repeatedly made military threats to both SK and Japan, even after the armistice ending the Korean War.

The US has no particular interest in NK, but it does have an interest in living up to its defensive and treaty obligations to SK and Japan, for reasons of prestige and to preserve political and economic stability in a region where the US has many trading and economic interests.