North Korea Status Report: What’s Next After Round Four of the Six-Party Talks?

The current round of six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions has exceeded expectations. As the negotiations reach their conclusion, Brookings Visiting Fellow Jack Pritchard, former Ambassador and Special Envoy for Negotiations with North Korea, will moderate a panel discussion to analyze what these talks mean for future diplomatic relations with North Korea. Ambassador Pritchard will be joined by Dr. James Walsh of Harvard University; and by Richard Ragan, the United Nations World Food Programme Country Director and Acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator for North Korea.

Ambassador Pritchard will discuss North Korea’s insistence that it be allowed to develop a peaceful nuclear program in return for abandoning production of nuclear weapons, explain why its government is now more willing to engage in six-party talks, and comment on how recent U.S. policy decisions are affecting the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran. Dr. James Walsh, who has hosted numerous North Korean delegations in the U.S., will present his views on the role of track two diplomacy before and after the fourth round of talks. Commentary on current North Korean trends will be presented by Richard Ragan, who has a unique understanding of the current pace of change in the country as the only U.S. citizen living in North Korea.

A question and answer session will follow panelists’ remarks. A project of the National Committee on North Korea, this discussion is also made possible by the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the Brookings Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies (CNAPS).