Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report—Contributor’s blog entry for DPRK.
Continuing with the theme of North Korea paradoxically dividing and unifying Asia, the past few weeks have seen a tremendous amount of activity. Ironically, it also seems the source most likely to report the details of this activity has been the Chinese press…
Peter Hayes evaluates the plausibility South Korea attaining nuclear weapons, either through the development of a domestic nuclear program or though the deployment of weapons from the United States. Hayes reviews recent calls from US Representative Trent Franks and the Saenuri Party’s Chung Mong-joon to arm South Korea with nuclear weapons and concludes that, “Indeed, to the extent that they inflame an already tense situation in Korea, these statements recall an old adage with particular resonance to South Koreans still living with the loss of the ship Cheonan and its crew, viz: “Loose Lips Sink Ships.””
Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report—Contributor’s blog entry for Deterrence.
On May 30, 2012, the DPRK official website “My Country” issued a revised North Korean constitution. (Intriguingly, the text appeared only in Korean)…
Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report—Contributor’s blog entry for Energy Security.
Frank von Hippel says of the Japanese continuing production of plutonium – in addition to the 35 tons stored around the world – for possible use in a “next-generation” fuel in power reactors, “It’s crazy…There is absolutely no reason to do that.” Perhaps not…
Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report—Contributor’s blog entry for Austral Peace and Security.
Washington’s Pacific pivot is essentially a matter of the Obama administration drawing a line under the distractions of the Bush-era disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan, and re-focusing strategic planning on the rise of Chinese economic, political and military power…
Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report—Contributor’s blog entry for Climate Change Adaptation.
In recent years, climate change has become a key policy and governance challenge that contains potentially severe implications for building peace, creating security, and restoring sustainability….
Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report—Contributor’s blog entry for DPRK.
Isolation threats don’t seem to bother North Korea. They are increasingly isolating themselves and yet bringing other countries together in new ways…
Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report—Contributor’s blog entry for DETERRENCE.
Dhanapala argues that a Northeast Asian (NEA) NWFZ is incompatible with nuclear extended deterrence, and rejects a transitional period in which states comply fully with a NWFZ treaty…
Colin McAskill asserts that “to continue to link economic engagement with the nuclear issue [in the DPRK] proved to be not only counter-productive but foolhardy. Instead the US must continue the bi-lateral approach, announce publicly that the international banking system is open to the DPRK to use and encourage investors to participate directly in its economic development so they don’t have to do so indirectly or clandestinely through China.”
Colin McAskill’s experience, dealing with as well as for-and-on-behalf-of the DPRK at the highest level, spans more than three decades. He has a deep-seated knowledge, understanding and first-hand experience of the DPRK, its strategies and tactics. He acted as an advisor for a decade during the period of the ‘Bullion Shipments’ into London; arranged training schedules for DPRK delegations in the UK; acted as the mandated representative for the DPRK during the ‘Defaulted Debt’ negotiations with the DPRK’s ‘London Club’ creditors; acted as a mandated representative for the DPRK during the Banco Delta Asia banking crisis in Macau, as well as many other individual assignments. He made his first visit to the DPRK in 1979 and has been a regular visitor to the country over the years.
James Goodby and Markku Heiskanen write “that the time for a more active diplomacy in the Korean Peninsula is approaching. And that refers not only to solving the North Korean nuclear issue but also to several legacies dating from World War II and the Korean War. The ultimate goal should be to sign a peace treaty to end formally the Korean War, which concluded only with an armistice agreement in 1953, and to reunify Korea in one way or another. There is some well-founded hope that the year 2012 could open a new era in multilateral efforts to finally construct a new post-Cold War political and security architecture in Northeast Asia.”
James Goodby is former US Ambassador to Finland. He does not speak for the current administration. He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.
Markku Heiskanen is former senior Finnish diplomat, and currently Senior Associate and Program Director of The Asia Institute at the Kyung Hee University in Seoul.
