The Scouting Report: Dialing Down North Korea’s Nuclear Threat

Former President Bill Clinton traveled to Pyongyang for a surprise meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Tuesday, resulting in the issuing of a “special pardon” for the American reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling detained in March. This visit came at a tense time following North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile tests in the past months, violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the boycotting of six-party talks. The Korean Central News Agency reported that the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee was a sign of North Korea’s “humanitarian and peaceloving policy.”

Brookings expert and Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies Richard Bush, whose two-decade public service career spans Congress, the intelligence community and the U.S. State Department, and Senior Politico Editor Fred Barbash took your questions on the North Korea problem in this week’s edition of the Scouting Report.