North Korea’s status as an international pariah is richly deserved. The country is a proliferator of nuclear technology having helped build a Syrian nuclear site that was destroyed by Israel and is believed to be assisting Burma in its own clandestine nuclear program. North Korea successfully detonated two nuclear devices on October 9, 2006, and May 25, 2009 and the U.S. believes North Korea has enough plutonium for at least half a dozen nuclear weapons. The regime has been striving to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering these …
Media reports and anonymous US and South Korean officials suggest North Korea is preparing to test launch a long-range Taepo Dong-2 missile. A missile launch, or even observable preparations for such a launch, would be the next step in Pyongyang’s escalating efforts to pressure South Korea and the U.S. to soften their policies toward North Korea. Pyongyang’s increasingly bellicose campaign is directed primarily at forcing President Lee Myung-bak to abandon requirements for conditionality, reciprocity, and transparency in South Korean engagement with the North. Pyongyang is, however, also concurrently sending a …
