NAPSNet 15 March 2012

• DETERRENCE: A Northeast Asia nuclear weapon free zone with a three-plus-three arrangement
• DPRK: Anti-S. Korea campaign solidifying Kim Jong Un`s power
• CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Adaptation to climate change by organizations
• ENERGY SECURITY: Fukushima in review: A complex disaster, a disastrous response
• GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: N. Korea vows to keep its nuke promises: Senator

DETERRENCE:  A Northeast Asia nuclear weapon free zone with a three-plus-three arrangement, Hiromichi Umebayashi, NAPSNet Special Report (13 March 2012)

Umebayashi concludes that it is neither necessary nor appropriate to delay the consideration of a Northeast Asia NWFZ until after the DPRK discontinues its nuclear program.

• Nagasaki University to establish research institute for nuclear arms abolition, Yosuke Watanabe, Asahi Shimbun (16 October 2011)
• Indonesia to strive for creation of ‘Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone’ at Seoul summit, Suryanto, Antara News (6 March 2012)

DPRK: Anti-S. Korea campaign solidifying Kim Jong Un`s power, Dong-A Ilbo, (6 March 2012)

The DPRK threatened to wage a “sacred and offensive war” against the South in response to ROK military units criticizing Kim Jong-Un and using DPRK flags for target practice. General Jung Seung-Jo, chairman of the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a group of naval officers to “launch [an] immediate and strong retaliation with all available weapons” in response to a North Korean attack. US/ROK joint military exercises will continue through April.

• NDC policy department holds press conference, KCNA (3 March 2012)
• S. Korea military vows tough response to N. Korea attack, Asia One (12 March 2011)
• North Korean nuclear nationalism and the threat of nuclear war in Korea, Peter Hayes and Scott Bruce, Pacific Focus (April 2011)

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Adaptation to climate change by organizations, Frans Berkhout, WIREs Climate Change, vol. 3, pp. 91–106 (2012) [PDF, 177 KB]

Five questions are important to be examined: what models of organizational adaptation to climate variability and change exist in the literature? How do organizations adapt? What factors encourage or inhibit organizational adaptation? What is the evidence of organizational adaptation? And what could be the role of public policy in enabling organizational adaptation?

• Shadow spaces for social learning: A relational understanding of adaptive capacity to climate change within organisations, Mark Pelling at al. Environment and Planning, vol. 40, issue 4, pp. 867-884 (2008) [subscription required]
• Learning to adapt: Organisational adaptation to climate change impacts, Frans Berkhout, Julia Hertin and David M. Gann, Working paper 47, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (2004)

ENERGY SECURITY: Fukushima in review: A complex disaster, a disastrous response, Yoichi Funabashi and Kay Kitazawa, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (1 March 2012) [PDF, 127 KB]

An independent panel established by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation reviewed responses of the Japanese government, TEPCO, and other organizations to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The panel found those involved “thoroughly unprepared on almost every level for the cascading nuclear disaster,” due in part to “a public myth of ‘absolute safety’” nurtured by nuclear proponents and “dysfunction” in political leadership and crisis management.

• Japan’s strategic energy plan under review after 2011 nuclear disaster, Junko Edahiro, Japan for Sustainability (29 February 2012)
• Fukushima one year later: An interview with Daniel P. Aldrich, Laura Araki, National Bureau of Asian Research (6 March 2012) [PDF, 211 KB]
• Why Fukushima was preventable, James M. Acton and Mark Hibbs, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (March 2012) [PDF, 1.14 MB]

GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: N. Korea vows to keep its nuke promises: Senator, Matthew Pennington, Associated Press (9 March 2012)

The DPRK will pursue friendly ties with and follow through on the recent agreement reached with the US, in which UN inspectors will visit DPRK nuclear sites in exchange for food aid, according to statements made to a US senator at an informal track 2 conference held in New York last week. However, relations between the two Koreas remain tense, with a ROK delegation physically confronting a DPRK minister at a UN human rights meeting held in Geneva.

• North envoy says UN inspectors to visit regime soon, Jung Kyung-min and Kim Hee-jin, Joongang Ilbo (14 March 2012)
• US, S. Korea in close contact over N. Korea, eye talks with Japan, Mainichi News (10 March 2012)
• South Korean lawmakers scuffle with North Korean delegates at UN human rights meeting, Washington Post (13 March 2012)