Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington and author of the forthcoming “Best of Intentions: America’s Campaign Against Strategic Weapons Proliferation,” published an essay in The Washington Post on October 29, 2000. Sokolski argues that the 1994 Agreed Framework will provide the DPRK with dangerous nuclear technology and know-how. He further argues that a deal that helps the DPRK to launch satellites will provide it with the technology to perfect its long-range missiles. Nautilus will provide responses to this essay in a series examining the DPRK’s offer to halt its missile development program in exchange for assistance with launching satellites into space.

This is the third essay examining the question of the DPRK’s past behavior in the light of the recently completed ROK-DPRK summit. This essay was contributed by William J. Taylor, Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Taylor examines the psychological profiles that have been constructed and propagated over the years by analysts, and by the DPRK itself, to demonstrate that those outside the DPRK do not know much about its leadership or its intentions. Taylor argues that the DPRK leadership may have bought into Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine Policy, providing other countries with an opportunity to normalize relations that should not be squandered.