APLN-EAF Joint Seminar on Key Decision Points in DPRK’s Nuclear Program
Prof. Siegfried Hecker shared with an attentive audience his views and interpretations on the North Korea nuclear situation at a seminar held on September 19, 2019 in Seoul, ROK. The seminar was co-organized by the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN) and the East Asia Foundation (EAF). The audience was composed of members from the national assembly; officials from the government including the Blue House, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Unification, etc.; diplomats from foreign embassies in Korea; as well as nuclear and nonproliferation experts. Members of press were also present. Following an opening talk by Prof. Chung-in Moon, Vice-Chairman and Executive Director of APLN, Prof. Hecker presented a talk on key decision points in North Korea’s nuclear program and assessed them from the both American and North Korean perspectives. While doing so, he argued that diplomacy and negotiation are important; diplomatic efforts made either by the U.S. or North Korea have actually resulted in having technical people on the ground in Yongbyon. He said that the rate of North Korea’s nuclear development has slowed when diplomatic efforts were made and has sped up when they were halted. He also emphasized that North Korea’s denuclearization should go together with the normalization of the relationship between the two countries. To this end, dismantling Yongbyon facilities, which are the heart of the North Korean nuclear program, would be a significant first step toward terminating the North Korean nuclear program. An in-depth discussion was followed at a luncheon with four members of the national assembly, a handful of governmental officials, and the speaker.
About the Speaker:
Siegfried S. Hecker is a senior fellow emeritus at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University. Hecker was co-director of CISAC from 2007–2012 and served as the fifth director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1986–1997.
Videos:
Media Coverage:
The importance of diplomacy in reducing tensions with N. Korea (The Hankyoreh, 2019.09.23.)
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_northkorea/910574.html
해커 박사 소개하는 문정인 특보 (연합뉴스, 2019.09.19.)
https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=001&aid=0011089523
“북핵 해결에 마법은 없어…점진적 인내 필요” (한겨레, 2019.09.20.)
https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=028&aid=0002468673
트럼프 정부가 들고 나올 ‘새 방법’ 시나리오는? (KBS, 2019.09.20.)
https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=100&oid=056&aid=0010744948
“북 핵개발, 외교 작동땐 주춤…영변 폐기로 결정적 첫발 떼야” (한겨레, 2019.09.23.)
https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=100&oid=028&aid=0002468811
