This week South Korea’s new president Park Geun-hye makes her first trip to the United States since assuming office in February. As tensions on the Korean peninsula continue to simmer, John S. Park (NBR) discusses several of the issues Madame Park and President Obama are likely to address during her visit.

Nicholas Hamisevicz of the Korea Economic Institute of America examines the motivations behind Pyongyang’s provocative behavior and argues that Kim Jong-un is far more similar to his father than many observers had hoped.

John S. Park

John S. Park, Stanton Nuclear Security Junior Faculty Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, argues that cooperation between North Korea and Iran has been a critical—yet underexamined—enabler of North Korea’s recent success. He concludes that the time has come for the United States to view the two previously independent missile programs as two sides of the same coin and recommends strategies for disrupting the procurement channels between Iran and North Korea.

NBR interviewed Professor Clark Sorensen, Chair of the Korea Studies department at the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies, to shed light on North Korea’s economic situation, its regime’s decision-making process, and the ideology that drives social and political behavior.

Christopher P. Twomey

In this NBR Analysis Brief, Christopher P. Twomey (Naval Postgraduate School) assesses the accomplishments and limitations of the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit and discusses what the United States and other countries should do to achieve the targets set for the 2014 summit.

On the one-year anniversary of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), signed by the United States and Russia, Christopher Ford, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Center and a former U.S. Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation, looks back at the negotiation, describes the treaty’s current status, and assesses the opportunities for future arms-reduction agreements between the two countries.

Toby Dalton, Jeffrey Lewis, Sue Terry, Sung-Yoon Lee and Jonathan D. Pollack

In this book review roundtable, four experts discuss Jonathan Pollack's No Exit: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons and International Security, followed by a response essay from the author.

NBR follows developments in U.S. relations with South Korea closely. NBR publications and event multimedia highlight critical issues on the Korean Peninsula and draw implications for U.S. policy in the region.

Teresita C. Schaffer

For Pakistan, the rise of India is a strategic nightmare, while the rise of China is an opportunity to curb India’s advancement and reduce dependence on the United States. Afghanistan sees its ties with India and China, as well as with the U.S., as vehicles for blunting interference by its immediate neighbors, especially Pakistan. Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka generally accept India’s primacy in their region. Bangladesh and Nepal see their ties with China as a way of increasing their freedom of action against India; Sri Lanka sees both India and China as means to emphasize its independence from Western donors.

Stephan Haggard and Daniel Pinkston

This Q&A presents an interview by Asia Policy editor, Andrew Marble, on political change in North Korea with Stephan Haggard, Krause Distinguished Professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California–San Diego, and Daniel Pinkston, Senior Analyst and Deputy Project Director for North East Asia at the International Crisis Group in Seoul.