Peace and Security in Northeast Asia: Nuclear Issue and the Korean Peninsula

Korean security was the focus of world-wide attention and concern in 1993-95 with North Korea's "suspected" nuclear weapons program. Dubbed by some as the first post-Cold War nuclear crisis, it was triggered by the United Nations Security Council's move to impose economic sanctions on North Korea. Although the immediate crisis was defused diplomatically, the nuclear time bomb continues to tick on the Korean peninsula, and the issues remain under close international surveillance. This important book examines North Korea's nuclear controversy from a variety of perspectives, including nuclear reactor technology and technology transfer, economic sanctions and incentives, strategic calculus and confidence-building measures, the major powers, and environmental challenges that a nuclear-free zone in Korea will present.