Abstract
The Korean peninsula has experienced earthshaking developments in the past six months, mainly owing to changes in North Korea. As marked by the inter-Korea summit, North Korea began to move towards relaxation of tensions and rapprochement. If these tendencies continue in the future, we can expect that the security of the Korean peninsula will be ensured and eventually a permanent peace be realized. At present, however, there is no guarantee for that. The following sections include not only a review of North Korean changes in the previous year, but calculations of its moves for this year and desired Japanese responses to them. To seek a way of inducing North Korea to choose the course of relaxing military tension is another objective of this article.