Nuclear Non-Proliferation and East Asia

This panel on East Asian and nuclear security discussed the immediate challenge of persuading North Korea to return to the Six-Party talks and the longer-term prospects of securing its de-nuclearization and averting further nuclear proliferation in East Asia, as well as the effects of Korean developments on the future of the global non-proliferation regime, particularly the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference later this year. 

A related set of questions pertains to the nuclear policies of the People's Republic of China (PRC).  What role can Beijing play in re-energizing the Six-Party Talks? How well does the PRC now adhere to global nuclear nonproliferation norms and what can it do better? As the United States and Russia commit to reducing their nuclear arsenals further, can China be persuaded to join these strategic offensive nuclear reductions talks or adopt other policies in their support? Finally, at a time when the U.S. administration has committed to ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, what are the prospects for its ratification by North Korea or China?

Hudson Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis Dr. Richard Weitz and Mark Brzezinski, Board Member of the Partnership for a Secure America, co-chaired a panel of distinguished experts in discussing these questions.