Playing "Whack-a-Mole" with North Korea

Publication Date: April 2008

Publisher: Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Bruce Klingner

Research Area: International relations

Keywords: Asia and the Pacific; U.S.-North Korean relations; Singapore agreement; North Korean abductions

Type: Brief

Coverage: Korea (North)

Abstract:

The U.S. intelligence community's revelation that North Korea was helping Syria to build a nuclear reactor "not intended for peaceful purposes" after seven months of Bush Administration stonewalling will be a serious body blow to the Six-Party Talks. The intelligence disclosure, coming so soon after strenuous congressional and interagency objections to a tentative agreement between Washington and Pyongyang to resolve the data declaration impasse, could be a knockout punch to the current U.S. strategy in the talks.