A. V. VORONTSOV Candidate of Historical Sciences Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Keywords: Korean Peninsula, DPRK, ROK, Framework agreement, sanctions 1By the end of 2014, the military-political situation on the Korean peninsula was frozen in a state of instability and anxious expectation. A number of political scientists from various countries, including in the United States, describe it as another dead end in the Korean equation. The acute military-political crisis that broke out on the Korean peninsula in March-April 2013 seriously alarmed the international community. In the course of this crisis, the DPRK leadership took an uncompromising position, making many formidable statements. The boundary of the new stage of the crisis was the DPRK's withdrawal from the 1953 Armistice Agreement and the corresponding agreements with the Republic of Korea (ROK), the elimination of the hotline between the military departments of North Korea and the United States, Pyongyang and Seoul, i.e. the elimination of the legal infrastructure and instruments that regulated the state of unstable equilibrium on the Korean peninsula. This was followed by other, purely military steps of the DPRK. PYONGYANG'S "PEACEFUL OFFENSIVE" However, in the second half of 2103-early 2014. Pyongyang, unexpectedly for many observers, changed not only the tone, but also the tactical line of foreign policy behavior and switched to a "peaceful offensive" in all azimuths, called by its opponents charm offensive ("propaganda offensive"). Nevertheless, Seoul and Washington try to ignore Pyongyang's softening of its positions and completely deny the Northerners the ability to have good intentions. Both the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States demonstrate their commitment to the policy of "strategic patience", which has recently become a target of criticism from a number of Western political scientists, including American ones. The leadership of the United States and the ... Read more