New Approach to Security in Northeast Asia: Breaking the Gridlock Workshop

Workshop date: October 9 and October 10, 2012.

Location: Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC

This workshop was convened to define a complement to containment, the default position of US policy towards the DPRK, via a comprehensive regional security settlement that enables states to accede, and then to commit in appropriate groupings to resolve those security issues that are salient given history, their capacity, and their interest.  Thus, a wide range of states were present, including Canada, Mongolia, and the EU.

Co-sponsors: Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ploughshares Fund.

The meeting will examine a proposal for a comprehensive security settlement that includes the following elements:

  • Creation of a permanent council on security
  • Termination of the state of war
  • Mutual declaration of no hostile intent
  • Provisions of assistance for nuclear and other energy
  • Termination of sanctions
  • Nuclear weapons free zone

A critical question is whether this approach, with the right sequencing, may capture the DPRK’s nuclear breakout over time, and end the DPRK nuclear threat.