[Night Sessions] North Korea’s Choice: Nuclear Issue

Session: Night Sessions
Date/Time: April 23, 2019 / 21:00-22:30

Moderator:
Jung H. Pak, The Brookings Institution

Speakers:
Chun Yungwoo, Korean Peninsula Future Forum
Bruce Klingner, The Heritage Foundation
Nishino Junya, Keio University
Jonathan Pollack, The Brookings Institution
Scott A. Snyder, Council on Foreign Relations

Panel Description
North Korea returned empty-handed from the second U.S.-DPRK summit. President Trump walked out from the negotiations when North Korea only offered to dismantle Yongbyon nuclear facilities in return for significant sanctions relief. It seems that the U.S. and North Korea had different notions of denuclearization: the U.S. understood it as denuclearization of North Korea while North Korea considered it as denuclearization of the entire Korean peninsula. After the summit, it became clear that North Korea is at a crossroads between nuclear retention and economic development. North Korean media have so far refrained from openly criticizing Trump, but recent intelligence reports raise suspicions about North Korea’s continued nuclear activities. Given the failure of the Hanoi summit, does North Korea intend to go back to confrontation as in 2017? Or does it merely wish to build up its negotiating power? Will the U.S. and North Korea continue the denuclearization process? If so, will North Korea offer to do more? Or will the U.S. change its position? What should South Korea do to achieve the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea?