North Korea and a Changing Northeast Asia

LECTURE SERIES

(October 2009 – March 2010)

The international confrontation over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs have reached another crisis point in the past year. At the same time, new questions have emerged regarding leadership transition within North Korea. North Korea’s domestic changes are taking place in a Northeast Asian region that is also undergoing considerable change. In a period of less than two years, new parties and administrations have come to power in South Korea, the United States, and Japan. China and Russia have begun to align more with the US and Japan vis-à-vis North Korea, while continuing to take advantage of their historically close ties to the North and to expand their strategic relationship with one another. The relations among the major powers of Northeast Asia are in an unusual state of flux, not least with regard to their policies toward North Korea. The future of the Six-Party Talks, designed to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue through a multilateral dialogue of Northeast Asian countries, is now very much in question. How to resolve the North Korea nuclear issue remains far from clear; meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis within North Korea continues.

This series brings together scholars and other experts to look at these changes and the future of North Korea and Northeast Asia from a wide range of perspectives. It will offer views on bilateral relations of the US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea with North Korea; the role of North Korea in Japan’s domestic politics; political and economic changes within North Korea and their potential impact on the region; the food crisis in North Korea and the role of NGOs; and the historical disputes that still divide Northeast Asia. Divided Korea is at the geographical center of Northeast Asia, and the diplomacy surrounding North Korea offer the potential for unprecedented regional cooperation as well as conflict.