The North Korea Crisis

The international community continues its efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear arsenal and ambitions. Progress has been slow, and recent six-party talks in Beijing concluded without a definitive set of directives towards security in the Korean peninsula. Increased communications and negotiations between all involved parties give at least some cause for optimism. But recent history—most notably North Korea’s April declaration of an existing and expanding nuclear program and its latest announcement of nuclear testing plans—suggests that reaching agreement could be extremely difficult and that the costs of failure could be very high.

A panel of experts will assess the recent round of talks and discuss the intensifying nuclear crisis with North Korea. Panelists will also discuss Brookings Senior Fellow Michael O’Hanlon’s proposals in his new book, Crisis on the Korean Peninsula: How to Deal with a Nuclear Korea, (McGraw-Hill, 2003), co-authored with George Washington University Professor Mike Mochizuki.