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The North Korean Nuclear Crisis: Four-Plus-Two—An Idea Whose Time Has Come
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2003
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Cooperation TheoryInternational CooperationEngineeringEast Asian StudiesNorth Korea ’CommunicationInternational ConflictUnited StatesSocial SciencesPolicy CooperationGeopoliticsInternational RelationsNuclear SecuritySecurity TheoryEast Asian LanguagesNorth KoreaWorld PoliticsNuclear PowerNational SecurityNuclear Security PolicyNuclear SafetySecurityCrisis ManagementPolitical Science
The confrontation between North Korea and the Bush administration over North Korea’s nuclear programs threatens to plunge Northeast Asia, one of the most strategically volatile regions in the world, into chaos and to ignite a nuclear arms race. This article argues that there is a way to achieve a peaceful resolution to this crisis that would be minimally acceptable to all parties, including both North Korea and the United States. It would be a four-plus-two security consortium, comprised of the four major powers in Northeast Asia (China, Japan, Russia, and the United States) plus the two Korean states. They would guarantee the security of the region and assure that the Koreas remained non-nuclear. This is a “cooperative security” design, the idea being to achieve security by working out mutually beneficial arrangements with or among likely adversaries, rather than constructing alliances against them.