In The News

Meeting the North Korean Nuclear Challenge

May 19, 2003
This special report from a task force at the Council on Foreign Relations suggests that the nuclear crisis in North Korea can be resolved only if the US creates a coalition of partners to pressure Pyongyang. China, in particular, the report says, should be called upon to impose sanctions on North Korea if Kim Jung Il's regime refuses to go along with a US deal. But without a firm, visible...

Is It Legal to Stop North Korea’s Nuclear Exports?

David E. Sanger May 18, 2003
As the first round of negotiations with North Korea ended without positive results, the US is considering other strategies to deal with the nuclear crisis in Northeast Asia. The hawks in the Bush administration have come up with the "quarantine" solution, which will put North Korea in an isolated position, allowing only food into the country. They also advocate interdictions of North...

Iran's Secret Quest for the Bomb

Leonard S. Spector May 16, 2003
Another spat between the US and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) may be brewing. When the agency's board meets next month, Washington hopes to get it to strongly condemn Iran for its clandestine effort to develop nuclear weapons - something that the agency is reportedly loath to do. In this article, non-proliferation expert Leonard S. Spector explains the background....

Roh Stresses 'Win-Win Model' in Industrial Relations

Roh Moo-hyun May 15, 2003
In his speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S.-Korea Business Council in Washington, South Korean President, Roh Moo-hyun, spoke at length on two major aspects of market reforms in South Korea: corporate transparency and labor-management relations. The public engagement also provided an important opportunity to reiterate South Korea's commitment to strengthening its relationship...

Bridging the Roh-Bush Divide on Korea

Michael O'Hanlon May 14, 2003
The global focus on North Korea's nuclear program is justified, given the immediate threat that weapons could pose to the world. However, the weapons program needs to be seen in context: an economic crisis, a large-scale conventional military force, and a strained relationship with Japan, China, and South Korea will all need to be discussed as well during any US-North Korea negotiations...

U.S. to Blame for Derailing Process of Denuclearisation on Korean Peninsula

May 12, 2003
As the new South Korean Prime Minister begins his first official visit to the United States, North Korea's Central News Agency released a report detailing the central role the United States has played and continues to play in the nuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The report is a scathing indictment of US foreign policy and holds the US solely responsible for undermining North and...

Seven Nuclear Sites Looted

Barton Gellman May 10, 2003
Seven nuclear facilities in Iraq were heavily damaged or destroyed by mass lootings that began with the arrival of US ground forces in Iraq in April. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and U.N. resolutions, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has the sole legal authority to carry out inspections of the nuclear sites. But all that changed with the Iraq War. IAEA has even had...