Session
[5-A] After the Seoul Nuclear Summit: Is a Nuclear Weapons-free Zone in Northeast Asia Still Possible
Date- June 1 (Fri.)
Time- 17:20 ~ 18:40
Organization- East Asia Foundation
Room- Crystal Hall A
The Seoul Nuclear Security Summit in March 2012 included discussions on various concrete measures for the prevention of nuclear terror, but the international common framework to manage nuclear threats is still lacking. In this current situation, this session focuses on many nuclear security issues, including whether a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone (NWFZ) in East Asia is achievable.
- At 27 years of age, Kim Jong Un is the world’s youngest-ever nuclear commander-in-chief. In light of the recent increase in threatening rhetoric between the two Koreas, is this war of words simply a psychological test of wills, or is there a genuine risk of impending nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula?
- Has the Fukushima accident revealed a latent threat of nuclear weapons in Japan, such that an increasingly non-nuclear-powered Japan has an ever-decreasing rationale for maintaining a gigantic stockpile of plutonium with weapon potential?
- Does US policy to contain potential Chinese and North Korean nuclear threats with equivalent countervailing measures stabilize the region? Or does it undermine both nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear abolition goals?
- How will the US “pivot” policy affect conventional and nuclear extended deterrence in East Asia? Is it coupled with the containment and engagement, or “congagement,” of China? Or will it appear as a policy of encirclement and predatory power projection by the US and its allies, aimed at Beijing?
- Moderator
Peter HAYES (Director, The Nautilus Institute for Security & Sustainability)
- Participants
Morton H. HALPERIN (Senior Advisor, Open Society Institute / former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy)
KIM, Bong Hyun (Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs, MOFAT)
KAWAGUCHI, Yoriko (Member, the House of Councillors, Japan; former Minister of Foreign Affairs)
FAN, Jishe (Deputy Director, Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation, Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
- Rapporteur
KIM, Hyun-jin (Global Asia Fellow, East Asia Foundation)
- At 27 years of age, Kim Jong Un is the world’s youngest-ever nuclear commander-in-chief. In light of the recent increase in threatening rhetoric between the two Koreas, is this war of words simply a psychological test of wills, or is there a genuine risk of impending nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula?
- Has the Fukushima accident revealed a latent threat of nuclear weapons in Japan, such that an increasingly non-nuclear-powered Japan has an ever-decreasing rationale for maintaining a gigantic stockpile of plutonium with weapon potential?
- Does US policy to contain potential Chinese and North Korean nuclear threats with equivalent countervailing measures stabilize the region? Or does it undermine both nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear abolition goals?
- How will the US “pivot” policy affect conventional and nuclear extended deterrence in East Asia? Is it coupled with the containment and engagement, or “congagement,” of China? Or will it appear as a policy of encirclement and predatory power projection by the US and its allies, aimed at Beijing?
- Moderator
Peter HAYES (Director, The Nautilus Institute for Security & Sustainability)
- Participants
Morton H. HALPERIN (Senior Advisor, Open Society Institute / former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy)
KIM, Bong Hyun (Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs, MOFAT)
KAWAGUCHI, Yoriko (Member, the House of Councillors, Japan; former Minister of Foreign Affairs)
FAN, Jishe (Deputy Director, Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation, Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
- Rapporteur
KIM, Hyun-jin (Global Asia Fellow, East Asia Foundation)
