Asia Society Northern California

Nuclear North Korea and the Future of Northeast Asian Security
An Asia Society Northern California Conference

8:30 am - 1:00 pm, February 13, 2007
Omni Hotel
500 California Street (at Montgomery)
San Francisco, CA

Featured guests: The Honorable Lee Tae-sik, The Honorable William Perry, Hitoshi Tanaka, Robert Scalapino, Xiyu Yang, Siegfried Hecker

North Korea's emergence as a nuclear state poses dramatic new challenges to South Korea, the U.S., and the broader Asia-Pacific region. Please join us as experts from the U.S., South Korea, Japan, and China share their views on what has happened in North Korea in recent years and how the U.S. and its allies can best respond. The North's nuclear test on October 9th sent shock waves throughout the region, but its October 31st decision to resume the six-party talks over its nuclear program has encouraged a measure of hope.

North Korea has reportedly reaffirmed its pledge to give up nuclear weapons programs in exchange for energy supplies and security guarantees. What steps can be taken to achieve this? What, if anything, would it take for the North to denuclearize? What will be the consequences if it does not?

Just how different are interests, perceptions, and strategies among the other parties to the negotiations, especially China, South Korea, and Japan? What concessions is the Bush administration, hamstrung by the war in Iraq and loss of control of Congress, willing to offer North Korea? What has the nuclear test done to the credibility or effectiveness of South Korea's "Sunshine policy" of conciliation and aid for the North? How much leverage does the PRC hold over the North, and how far is it willing to go in using it? What line is Japan's conservative new administration under Shinzo Abe in Japan likely to take? These are some of the urgent questions that the conference will address.

Asia Society Northern California

500 Washington Street, Suite 350
San Francisco, CA 94111
Tel: 415-421-8707
Fax: 415-421-2465
Email: sanfrancisco@asiasoc.org