May 16, 2012

Shaky resolve on North Korea

The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea, meeting in Beijing on Sunday, agreed to strengthen cooperation toward preventing a nuclear explosion test by North Korea and to launch talks this year on a trilateral free trade deal. But their joint statement, issued one ...

Apr 22, 2012

India extends its nuclear reach

While international attention has been focused on North Korea’s failed “satellite launch,” India last week successfully test-fired a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead 5,000 km. This development has the potential to shift the regional strategic balance and introduce new uncertainties into Asia. ...

Apr 21, 2012

Conservative comeback in S. Korea

Conservatives eked out a surprising victory in National Assembly elections in South Korea last week. Capitalizing on voter anger at President Lee Myung Bak and a general anxiety over economic prospects, progressives were expected to prevail in the ballot. The outcome is a likely ...

Apr 20, 2012

Stopping the North's next move

The United Nations Security Council on Monday “strongly condemned” North Korea for its failed rocket launch three days earlier and announced that it will impose new sanctions. The North’s failed attempt to launch a satellite clearly violates a 2009 UNSC resolution that prohibits it ...

Apr 14, 2012

North Korea's failure that provokes

North Korea on Friday failed in its anticipated satellite launch, with the rocket splintering into pieces. The North should not attempt another launch or nuclear test, which will only contribute to heightening tensions in the region. The launch came after its young leader Kim ...

Mar 24, 2012

China must rein in N. Korea

by Ralph Cossa

Now what? Just when we thought things were getting better, North Korea pulled the rug out from under everyone, including itself, by announcing a planned satellite launch to commemorate Great Leader Kim Il Sung’s 100th birthday celebration. Pyongyang (pretends to) believe that there is ...

Mar 22, 2012

Provocative rocket launch plan

North Korea on March 16 announced that it will launch a rocket mounted with an Earth observation satellite in mid-April. It insists that every nation has a right to pursue peaceful use of outer space. But given its nuclear weapons program, it is not ...

Mar 17, 2012

Nuclear agenda after 3/11

by Ramesh Thakur

A year after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, all but two of the country’s 54 nuclear reactors are shut down. The Japanese people remain confused, apprehensive and distrustful of government statements and reassurances. The future of the ...

Mar 14, 2012

Sending the wrong message to North Korea

by Andrew Natsios

Another food crisis has spread across North Korea, caused by yet another poor harvest and Pyongyang’s disastrous currency manipulation scheme, which wiped out the savings many people had used to feed themselves. We do not know how many people are dying, but it is ...

Mar 9, 2012

Breakthrough is close, again

by Ralph Cossa

The recent “food for freeze” agreement between the United States and North Korea has been described accurately by the State Department as reflecting “important, if limited, progress” and inaccurately by the media as constituting a “breakthrough” in the seemingly endless march toward Korean Peninsula ...

Mar 4, 2012

Small step in the right direction

The United States and North Korea have found common ground. Washington and Pyongyang announced on Wednesday that the North would stop nuclear and missile provocations as the U.S. would proceed with the provision of food aid. This seeming consensus should open the door to ...