How to Control a Nuclear North Korea?
For more than a decade, the United States and North Korea’s neighbors have tried various tactics, from multilateral agreements to sanctions, in attempts to keep the rogue state from becoming nuclear. Six-Party Talks involving the United States, the Koreas, China, Japan, and Russia fell apart a year ago when North Korea walked away from negotiations and refused to abandon its uranium enrichment program. For its part, the United States has rebuffed Pyongyang’s repeated demand for one-on-one talks. North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October, raising the concern level about the Kim Jong-Il regime’s weapons arsenal as well as the possibility that nuclear materials could be spirited out of North Korea. Complicating the issue are the differing stakes for Six-Party Talk members; while the United States and Japan push hard line approaches to try to control Pyongyang’s weapons capabilities, China, South Korea, and Russia worry about the possibility of handling a refugee influx if th
