In The News

Bush turns diplomatic in handling Korean crisis

Edward Epstein December 14, 2002
In a phone conversation on December 13 with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, President Bush said he won't allow "business as usual to continue," but promised to seek a diplomatic settlement to North Korea's decision to restart a nuclear program. The question of why the US is preparing to go to war against Iraq but seeking a diplomatic solution in North Korea underlines the...

North Korea Suspends Nuclear Moratorium

Kim Min-bai December 12, 2002
Already the focus of nations worried about the proliferation of nuclear and conventional weapons, North Korea announced Thursday that it will resume development of nuclear power facilities to meet its energy needs. The communist country and the United States had agreed in 1994 that if North Korea stopped its nuclear programs, the US would supply it with enough oil to meet its needs until a safer...

United States to North Korea: We Now Have a Pre-Condition

James A. Kelly December 12, 2002
Just a day before North Korea announced the resumption of the operation of a nuclear reactor closed since 1994, a top US official gave for the first time a personal account of his meeting with North Korean officials. He said that after reviewing the Clinton administration’s North Korea policy, the Bush administration decided in June 2001 to speak to the North Koreans "any time, any place,...

Indonesia Backgrounder: How the Jemaah Islamiyah Terrorist Network Operates

December 11, 2002
How do multinational terrorist organizations maintain communication, plan violent attacks, and find people of similar thinking to grow their ranks? This background report from the International Crisis Group describes how Southeast Asia's fiercest terrorist organization – the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) – motivates, recruits, and carries out violent attacks. The investigators who authored the...

Police Arrest Key Mcdonald's Bomb Suspect

December 11, 2002
Finding more ties to the terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah, Indonesian police arrested a key suspect in the bombing of a McDonald's restaurant last week. Although it is still unclear whether the restaurant bombing was tied to the bombing in Bali that killed about 200 people in October, such a link remains a strong possibility, as both the restaurant and the nightclub destroyed in Bali are...

Yemen Protests Seizure of North Korean Ship; Says Scuds Were Bound for Its Army

Thom Shanker December 11, 2002
With the US and other world powers on high alert due to the tension in Iraq, arms shipments into and out of the Middle East are an extremely sensitive topic. As reported today in the New York Times, "Yemen said today that Scud missiles found on a North Korean ship were destined for its army, and issued formal protests over the vessel's seizure to the United States and Spain."...

After the Serial Blasts

December 10, 2002
The recent surge of terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia, like in Indonesia and Bangladesh, is putting pressure on politicians and local authorities to crack down on terrorism. Unlike the US, however, poor countries with internal political divisions are having a harder time fighting battles in the war on terrorism. An internal government feud in Bangladesh erupted after a series of bombs exploded...