Our newest regular news digest for readers covers the latest updates on diplomatic efforts between the United States, North Korea, and South Korea, and the path to the denuclearization of the peninsula. This issue highlights U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to Pyongyang this week, details progress and obstacles since the Singapore Summit, and provides a backgrounder on North Korea's nuclear weapons.
The terms and timing for denuclearization remain uncertain.
Thailand becomes 167th country to ratify the treaty.
Why Pyongyang’s chemical weapons also require attention.
The Trump administration seeks rapid steps toward denuclearization.
Remarks by Thomas Countryman to the International Symposium for Peace in Nagasaki, Japan
February 2022
The historic if brief encounter on June 12 between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides a hopeful starting point for the lengthy and arduous process of negotiating the details of denuclearization and the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean peninsula.
Seeking North Korea’s signature on and ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is the most promising near-term option to build confidence and make meaningful progress toward nuclear disarmament.
By talking rather than threatening, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stepped back from an accelerating slide toward a conflict. Still, eliminating Kim’s nuclear weapons is a
tall order.
Dr. Lassina Zerbo, the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), spoke at a June 14, 2018 event on the role of technology in North Korean disarmament, which was co-sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Arms Control Association. Zerbo emphasized the importance of “getting the ball over the goal line” when it comes to North Korean disarmament.
June 2019
January 2022