The Peninsula Question; A chronicle of the Second Korean Nuclear Crisis

Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2007. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Very good. Beth Schlenoff. xii, [2], 592, [2] pages. Chronology. Notes. Interviewees, Index. Ink marks to text and margin noted. Yoichi Funabashi is an award-winning Japanese journalist, columnist and author. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, the US-Japan Alliance, geoeconomics and historical issues in the Asia Pacific. He served as a correspondent for the Asahi Shimbun in Beijing (1980-81) and Washington (1984-87), as US General Bureau Chief (1993-97), and later as Editor-in-Chief (2007-10). He was the first Japanese laureate of Stanford University's prestigious Shorenstein Journalism Award (2016). He established Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, an independent Tokyo-based think tank, in September 2011, which expanded to become Asia Pacific Initiative in 2017. His English books include Meltdown (forthcoming); The Crisis of Liberal Internationalism, ed. (co-edited with G. John Ikenberry, 2020); The Peninsula Question (2007); Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific, ed. (2003); Alliance Adrift (1998, winner of the Shincho Arts and Sciences Award); and Asia-Pacific Fusion: Japan's Role in APEC (1995, winner of the Mainichi Shimbun Asia Pacific Grand Prix Award). He is a current member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Advisory Council. In October 2002 the United States confronted North Korea with suspicions that Pyongyang was enriching uranium in violation of the Agreed Framework that the nations had worked out during the Clinton administration. North Korea subsequently evicted international monitors and resumed its nuclear weapons program. The Peninsula Question chronicles the resulting second Korean nuclear crisis. Japanese journalist Yoichi Funabashi, informed by interviews with more than 160 diplomats and decision makers from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the negotiations to denuclearize the peninsula. Between 2002 and 2006, a series of top level diplomats, including the prime minister of Japan, attempted to engage with North Korea. Funabashi illustrates how the individual efforts of these major powers laid the groundwork for multilateral negotiations, first as the trilateral meeting and then as the Six-Party Talks. The first four rounds of talks (2003 2005) resulted in significant progress. Unfortunately, a lack of implementation after that breakthrough ultimately led to North Korea's missile tests in July and subsequent nuclear tests in October 2006. The Peninsula Question provides a window of understanding on the historical, geopolitical, and security concerns at play on the Korean peninsula since 2002. Offering multiple perspectives on the second Korean nuclear crisis, it describes more than just the U.S. and North Korean points of view. It pays special attention to China's dealings with North Korea, providing rare insights to into the decision-making processes of Beijing. This is an important, authoritative resource for understanding the crisis in Korea and diplomacy in Northeast Asia.