Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis

In this book, three former US officials who played key roles in the 1994 crisis trace the intense efforts that led North Korea to freeze - and pledge to ultimately dismantle - its dangerous plutonium production programme, while avoiding a second Korean War. Drawing on internal government documents, memoranda, cables and notes, the authors chronicle the complex web of diplomacy - from Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing to Geneva, Moscow and Vienna and back again - that led to the negotiation of an Agreed Framework to resolve the nuclear dispute between the United States and North Korea. They also explore the challenge of striking the right balance among the military, economic and diplomatic instruments employed to persuade North Korea to accept significant constraints on its nuclear activities, while deterring rather than provoking a violent North Korean response.