Meeting the North Korean Nuclear Challenge

Task Force Report
Analysis and policy prescriptions of major foreign policy issues facing the United States, developed through private deliberations among a diverse and distinguished group of experts.

The North Korean nuclear program is headed in a dangerous direction. Yet the United States and its allies have not set forth a coherent or unified strategy to stop it. This Task Force report evaluates the challenges facing the United States in and around the Korean Peninsula and assesses American options for meeting them.

The situation on the peninsula has deteriorated rapidly since October 2002, when North Korea admitted having a secret highly enriched uranium program that put it on course to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons. North Korea has since withdrawn from the Non-proliferation Treaty, asserted that it possesses nuclear weapons, and declared that it is reprocessing its spent nuclear fuel. Having initially emphasized the need for a negotiated solution, North Korea in its recent rhetoric has stressed the deterrent value of nuclear weapons.

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North Korea

Nonproliferation, Arms Control, and Disarmament

The Task Force report makes specific recommendations to help guide U.S. foreign policy: 1) articulate a strategy around which U.S. regional partners can rally; 2) as part of that strategy, engage in a serious negotiating effort with North Korea and test its intentions by proposing an interim agreement; 3) secure the commitment of U.S. allies to take tougher action should talks fail; 4) restore the health of the U.S.-South Korea alliance; 5) persuade China to take greater responsibility for resolving the crisis; and 6) appoint a full-time high-level coordinator for Korea.

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North Korea

Nonproliferation, Arms Control, and Disarmament

Task Force Members

Task Force Members:

MORTON I. ABRAMOWITZ is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. He was U.S. ambassador to Thailand and has served as the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

DESAIX ANDERSON is former executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization.

EDWARD J. BAKER is associate director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, a foundation associated with Harvard University that brings East Asian scholars to the United States for research and studies.

DANIEL E. BOB is Council on Foreign Relations Hitachi international affairs fellow in Japan and research adviser to Japan’s National Institute for Research Advancement.

STEPHEN W. BOSWORTH is dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He has served as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea and the Philippines.

VICTOR D. CHA is an associate professor of government at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

JEROME A. COHEN is adjunct senior fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also counsel to the international law firm of Paul,Weiss, Rifkind,Wharton and Garrison and is professor of Law at New York University Law School.

JAMES E. DELANEY is a consultant at the Institute for Defense Analyses. He served as a U.S. intelligence officer in Asia for more than twenty years.

L. GORDON FLAKE is executive director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation. Formerly, he was associate director of the Program on Conflict Resolution at the Atlantic Council of the United States.

DONALD P. GREGG is chairman of the Korea Society in New York. He served as the Central Intelligence Agency Station chief in Seoul (1973–75) and as ambassador to the Republic of Korea (1989–93).

JOSEPH M. HA is vice president of international business and government relations at Nike, Inc. He is also professor emeritus at Lewis and Clark College.

ERIC HEGINBOTHAM is senior fellow in Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

FRANK S. JANNUZI is a Democratic staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He served as an East Asia regional political-military analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State.

RICHARD KESSLER is the Democratic staff director of the Subcommittee on Financial Management, the Budget, and International Security for the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs.

SUKHAN KIM is senior partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld. He is also the founder and president of the Sukhan Kim Foundation: Korean-American Youth Service Organization, Inc.

JAMES T.LANEY is president emeritus of Emory University. He served as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea (1993–97).

KENNETH G. LIEBERTHAL is professor of political science and the William Davidson professor of business administration at the University of Michigan. He served as senior director of Asia at the National Security Council (1998–2000).

WINSTON LORD is co-chairman of the International Rescue Committee. He served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and ambassador to China.

K. A. NAMKUNG is an independent consultant specializing in U.S.-Asian relations. He advises government agencies and businesses in the United States and East Asia.

MARCUS NOLAND is a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics. He has served as the senior economist for international economics at the Council of Economic Advisers.

DONALD OBERDORFER is distinguished journalist-in-residence and an adjunct professor at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University. He is also the author of The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History.

KONGDAN OH is a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

MITCHELL B. REISS is dean of international affairs at the College of William and Mary. He has served as assistant executive director and senior policy adviser at the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization.

ROBERT W. RISCASSI is a retired U.S. Army General. He has served as commander in chief of U.N. Command and commander in chief of the Republic of Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.

ALAN D. ROMBERG is senior associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center. He served as principal deputy director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff under President Clinton.

JASON T. SHAPLEN was a policy adviser at the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) (1995–99), where his primary responsibility was to prepare and negotiate agreements between KEDO and North Korea.

WENDY R. SHERMAN is a principal at The Albright Group. She served as a counselor of the Department of State, with the rank of ambassador during the Clinton administration.

SCOTT SNYDER is the Korea Representative at The Asia Foundation. He is the author of Negotiating on the Edge: North Korean Negotiating Behavior.

STEPHEN J. SOLARZ heads an international business consultancy. He was also vice chair at the International Crisis Group. For twelve of his eighteen years in the House of Representatives, he served as chairman of the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs.

NANCY BERNKOPFTUCKER is professor of history at Georgetown University in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She served in the State Department Office of Chinese Affairs and the U.S. Embassy, Beijing (1986–87).

WILLIAM WATTS is president of Potomac Associates. He has served as U.S. Foreign Service officer in the Republic of Korea, Germany, and the Soviet Union, and as staff secretary at the National Security Council.

JOEL WIT is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

DONALD S. ZAGORIA is a trustee at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and also a professor of government at Hunter College.

RICHARD V.ALLEN is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University. He served as national security adviser to President Ronald W. Reagan.

ROBERT DUJARRIC is a fellow at the Hudson Institute and chairs the Korea-Japan seminar series.

ARNOLD KANTER is a principal at the Scowcroft Group. He served as undersecretary of state for political affairs (1991–93) and as special assistant to the president for defense policy and arms control (1989–91).

HELMUT SONNENFELDT is a guest scholar for foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. He has served as a senior staff member of the National Security Council.

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