North Korea and the United States have had an uneasy relationship since 1945, taking up arms at worst, mistrusting each other at best.

The United States sees North Korea, in the words of President Bush, as part of an "axis of evil." North Korea accuses the United States of becoming the main force for imperialism in the World.

The relationship has had many difficult moments, marked by North Korea's seizure of the United States Navy intelligence-gathering Ship USS Pueblo in 1968, the shooting down of a U.S. reconnaissance plane in 1969, and the killing of two American soldiers in the DMZ in 1976.

In the late 1980s, attempting to bring the North out of its deep isolation, South Korea began diplomatic overtures, as did the United States.

Tension over nuclear arms has characterized much of the relationship, but as famine afflicted the 24 million people of the North in the late 1990s, the United States and others offered humanitarian aid.