Robert E. Bedeski

North Korea South Korea nuclear weapons Six-Party Talks national interest multilateralism

In the past decade, the threat of North Korea’s WMD (weapons of mass destruction) has challenged South Korea, Japan, and the United States. The Korean peninsula has long been a focal point for tension and rivalry among the various nations concerned about the implications for their own security of developments in Korea. North Korea’s admission of continued nuclear weapons development further heightened tensions in the Northeast Asia region. South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. demanded that North Korea guarantee that it would not produce weapons-grade plutonium from the old reactors. The growing economic vulnerability of North Korea, particularly since the demise the USSR in late 1991, has made the situation in Northeast Asia even more volatile. In an effort to defuse this situation, Six-Party Talks began in Beijing in August 2003, with the U.S., Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, and North Korea participating. In order to evaluate the chance for success in these talks, we need to take into account how the six participants each identify their national interest. We should remember that what North Korea wants most is survival. What South Korea wants is peace. China wants North Korea to remain a buffer between China and the U.S. Russia, too, wants North Korea to survive as an independent state. Japan wants North Korea’s nuclear threat eliminated. And the U.S. also wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. Meanwhile, on the sidelines, Canada watches and hopes that these multilateral talks will lead to a solution that serves the interests of the Korean people, North and South.