Transcript
James B. Steinberg: Strobe has really given a terrific introduction to our program for today, and I must say that, for all of us, the issues could not be more timely, and we could not be better served by both the panelists that we have today, but also the audience. And I'm really grateful to all of you as a very distinguished group of observers and analysts and sometimes practitioners on the problems we're going to be discussing. And so I know that not only will we get a lot of enlightenment from our panels, but also from the questions and comments from the floor. So we plan to have plenty of time for that.
I don't think the nature of the first topic needs much explanation. I think that the question on everybody's mind is exactly what is on Pyongyang's mind, and it's one of the more mystifying challenges that we all have, but fortunately we have four people here who, if anybody can help us understand it, they can. So let me not waste more time, but just briefly introduce our panel. I'll do it by distance that they've traveled to get here, which—with the exception of one case, is not very far.
First, Allan Song, who is the program officer for the International Security and Foreign Policy program at the Smith Richardson Foundation, which is a foundation known to all of you as perhaps one of the most focused on the security problems of East Asia and has been a great source of support to all of us over the year. Allan's—in particular—expertise has been a tremendous asset to the work of the foundation, and in addition to his years at Smith Richardson, he also worked as a director of Asia programs at the United Nations Association, and that gives him another interesting perspective on the challenges that we're facing. He has been a frequent commentator and writer in all the major publications that are focused on these issues.
Then the next furthest distance traveled is Don Oberdorfer, who has come from about six buildings away. Don, as you all know, is journalist-in-residence and adjunct professor in international relations at SAIS, as well as a distinguished author and journalist for a long time, and has been a frequent contributor to our sessions here at Brookings, for which we are grateful.
Next closest, from directly across the street, Marcus Noland, who is a senior fellow at the international—the Institute for International Economics, who has written—also written extensively on Japan, Korea and China, and in particular—Avoiding the Apocalypse: the Future of the two Koreas,—which won the 2000-2001 Ohira Masayoshi Award.
And finally, from five stories up, Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow here and a well-known author and commentator on not only the Korean Peninsula, but a number of other issues. Mike is hard at work on his own book on Korea, which is he is going to Mike Mochizuki, an alumnus of Brookings, and we hope to have that out in the not-too-distant future.
So to begin with, we're going to start and look at what's—what are the motivations behind the recent moves by North Korea, what should we expect going forward, what are the prospects for an agreement, and I want to ask Allan to begin the discussion.
Introduction by Richard Bush and Strobe Talbott (PDF 81kb)
Panel 1: Complete Transcript (PDF 186kb)
Panel 2: Complete Transcript (PDF 168kb)