North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with top officials in Pyongyang in March 2021 | Image: Rodong Sinmun (March 26, 2021)
While North Korea’s nuclear scientists were hard at work, carefully pushing the limits at the Yongbyon research facility, the Bush administration was twisting intelligence reports and finding non-existent weapons in Iraq as a pretext for invasion, war and regime change.
The nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker gives this account of Bush-era policy in his new book “Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program,” which takes a hard look at Washington’s approach to the DPRK over the years and finds that it has often been to the detriment of U.S. security. Rational decision-making, he argues, has been ignored in favor of politics.
While North Korea’s nuclear scientists were hard at work, carefully pushing the limits at the Yongbyon research facility, the Bush administration was twisting intelligence reports and finding non-existent weapons in Iraq as a pretext for invasion, war and regime change.
The nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker gives this account of Bush-era policy in his new book “Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program,” which takes a hard look at Washington’s approach to the DPRK over the years and finds that it has often been to the detriment of U.S. security. Rational decision-making, he argues, has been ignored in favor of politics.
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David A. Tizzard (@Hesp365) has a Ph.D. in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He is a social and cultural commentator who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He is also the host of the Korea Deconstructed podcast.