It was with some trepidation that Koreans on both sides of the demilitarized zone watched the Bush administration come to power, given the more "hardline" position many Congressional Republicans had taken over the years regarding North Korea. However, the outcome of the administration's finally completed Korea policy is, on the whole, quite balanced and not significantly different in terms of overall objectives from those pursued by the Clinton administration.

The new policy was announced by U.S. President George W. Bush in June, just prior to the Washington visit of South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung Soo and further spelled out by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly in congressional testimony later that month. However, even before the policy review was completed, comments by senior administration officials, including the president himself, strongly suggested that we would see more continuity than change in Washington's dealings on Peninsula issues (including U.S. humanitarian assistance to the North, which continued even during the review process).

The U.S. policy review, in many respects, merely confirmed what Bush had told South Korean President Kim Dae Jung three months earlier; namely that Washington will continue to support the Sunshine Policy, the Agreed Framework, and the Trilateral Coordination Oversight Group process with Seoul and Tokyo. Bush also indicated his willingness to resume Washington's dialogue with Pyongyang on a broad range of issues, including missiles.