NAPSNet | Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability

Policy Forum 11-38: North Korea’s Digital Transformation: Implications for North Korea Policy

Peter Hayes, Professor, RMIT University and Nautilus Institute Executive Director, Scott Bruce, Nautilus Institute Director, and Dyana Mardon, Nautilus Institute Program Officer, review the implications of the introduction and deepening of information technology in North Korea in light of the unique social structure and state controls over information flow and individual behavior found in the DPRK.

This essay reviews the implications of the introduction and deepening of information technology in North Korea in light of the unique social structure and state controls over information flow and individual behavior found in the DPRK. It expands upon and extrapolates from the NAPSNet Special Report “North Korea on the Cusp of Digital Transformation” by Alexander Mansourov published November 1, 2011.

NAPSNet 3 November 2011

DETERRENCE: Legal cooperation to control non-state nuclear proliferation: extra-territorial jurisdiction and UN resolutions 1540 and 1373
ENERGY SECURITY: Big risks, better alternatives an examination of two nuclear energy projects in the U.S.
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Public risk perceptions, understandings, and responses to climate change in Australia and Great Britain
GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Younger vote reflects quest for change
DPRK: North Korea on the cusp of digital transformation
AUSTRAL SECURITY: South China Sea Conflict? No Way

Legal Cooperation to Control Non-State Nuclear Proliferation: Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction and UN Resolutions 1540 and 1373 – Workshop Summary Report

This is the Summary Report from the Nautilus Institute workshop “Cooperation to Control Non-State Nuclear Proliferation: Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction and UN Resolutions 1540 and 1373” held on April 4th and 5th in Washington DC with the Stanley Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This workshop explored the theoretical options and practical pathways to extend states’ control over non-state actor nuclear proliferation through the use of extra-territorial jurisdiction and international legal cooperation.

Other papers and presentations from the workshop are available here.

North Korea on the Cusp of Digital Transformation

In this report Alexandre Y. Mansourov, a Nautilus Institute Senior Associate, comprehensively examines information technology in North Korea. He states that “[t]he DPRK mobile communications industry has crossed the Rubicon, and the North Korean government can no longer roll it back without paying a severe political price. The most the authorities can do now is probably to manage its rapid expansion in such a way that will ensure that the interests of the political regime and state security are taken care of first…While traditionally, the State Security Department monitored most communications on a daily basis, the implication of this explosion of mobile phone use is that communication in North Korea has transitioned from a panopticon of total control to a voluntary compliance system where the government makes an example of a select group to try and force the rest of the country to stay in line.”

NAPSNet 27 October 2011

DETERRENCE: Obstacles to denuclearization: Inconsistent U.S. responses to nuclear weapons free zone treaties
DPRK: South Korean government planning to resume construction of factories and relax sanctions for Kaesong Industrial Complex
AUSTRAL SECURITY: Police send extra troops to Papua
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Scientific American series on extreme weather, climate change, and the risks: A three-part series
GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Delegates to North-South Korea relations summit calls for adherence to past nuclear agreements
ENERGY SECURITY: Nuclear components and construction: China eyes developed markets for export opportunities

Commander in Chief U.S. Pacific Command History 1993 Vol I & II (U)

This history describes US Commander in Chief Pacific Command’s actions in discharging his assigned responsibilities and his relationships with U.S. military and other governmental agencies. It records his command decisions and policy positions [in 1993]…“a year in which our national security goals for the Asia-Pacific region gained clarity, coherence, and acceptance.”

This report was released to the Nautilus Institute under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). See the Institute’s FOIA Global Disclosure Project page to read more chronologies, histories and reports released to Nautilus.

Policy Forum 11-37: Kim Jong Il’s Nuclear Diplomacy and the US Opening: Slow Motion Six-Party Engagement

In this essay Jeffrey Lewis, Director of East Asia Nonproliferation Program of the James Martin Center for NonProliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute, Peter Hayes, Professor of Global Studies, RMIT University and Executive Director of Nautilus Institute and Scott Bruce, Director of the Nautilus Institute, San Francisco examine the lead-up to negotiations between the United States and the DPRK on the nuclear issue that resume in Geneva on October 26, 2011. It notes the high priority placed on domestic economic issues, the escalating threat of a missile or nuclear test in North Korean statements, but then points to the underlying and fundamental issues of the threat of nuclear attack and the need for removal of such threat as the basis for eventual resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue. It concludes by prefiguring the issues that re-engagement of the DPRK would require be addressed in order to actually resolve the nuclear issue.

NAPSNet 20 October 2011

DETERRENCE: Precision technologies as possible alternatives to nuclear weapons
AUSTRAL SECURITY: People’s congress forcefully dispersed [Indonesia]
GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: S. Koreans hold ‘occupy wall street’ protest in Seoul
CLIMATE CHNAGE ADAPTATION: Extreme weather and climate change: understanding the link, managing the risk
ENERGY SECURITY:The old model isn’t working: Creating the energy utility for the 21st century
DPRK: Doctors check on North’s hibakusha

Commander in Chief U.S. Pacific Command History Vol I (U) 1992

This history describes USCINCPAC’s actions in discharging his assigned responsibilities and his relationships with U.S. military and other governmental agencies. It records his command decisions and policy positions [in 1992]…“The U.S. led victory in the Persian Gulf and the collapse of the Soviet Union were the defining events of 1991. They also set into motion a sea change in the strategic environment, a change that found shape and definition in 1992. During the past year, this strategic transformation was marked by events perhaps less dramatic than 1991′s, but no less profound.”

Policy Forum 11-36: Ousting Kan Naoto: The Politics of Nuclear Crisis and Renewable Energy in Japan

Jeff Kingston, Director of Asian Studies, Temple University (Japan Campus), examines why, in the midst of an unprecedented cascade of natural and nuclear disasters in Japan, the problem of Kan Naoto’s ouster trumped all others in the national media and politics. Kingston claims that, following the meltdowns at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant, the Japanese media helped to protect the vested interests of the powerful ‘nuclear village’ by dwelling on Kan’s lack of leadership qualities and ignoring the institutional reasons why it is difficult for Japanese leaders to lead. “The ousting of Kan is an object lesson in crossing the powerful players who control Japan’s energy policy…While the village is in trouble, it retains enormous power to influence public discourse and politics”.