ABSTRACT
Since September 2005, we have witnessed nothing short of an astonishing rollercoaster ride on the Korean Peninsula. In September 2005, all the delegations to the Six-Party Talks on the North Korean nuclear program signed a Statement of Principles in Beijing that suggested a resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis might be possible. The air of hopefulness produced by this agreement barely lasted twenty-four hours, however. After a subsequent aborted session several months later, the talks were suspended as two of the main parties, the United States and North Korea, traded accusations. Then, half a year later, in July 2006, tensions escalated when North Korea launched seven ballistic missiles into the East Sea with no warning. This action was met with condemnation in capitals around the world. Three months later, in October 2006, North Korea detonated what appeared to be an underground nuclear device. Once again the act was met with widespread international criticism. But within approximately two months, the United States and North Korea had resumed a dialogue under the rubric of the Six-Party Talks. On February 13, 2007, the six parties signed an agreement to achieve a set of comprehensive steps within a sixty-day period. Yet April 13 came and went without any real progress toward implementation of the agreement.
