North Korea's rapid advancements on missil e and nuclear fronts has elicited international concern and condemnation. F oremost among United States national security concerns\, as handed over fro m the Obama to Trump administrations\, the North Korean challenge entails i mportant aspects political\, economic and military. Korea Society senior di rector and Columbia adjunct associate professor of political science\, Dr. Stephen Noerper\, explores the progression of the North Korea's security ch allenge since the end of the Cold War and the various tacks and turns of fo ur US presidencies. In addressing the recent Trump trip to Asia\, including his messaging on India-pacific unity and North Korea\, Dr. Noerper will al so examine US policy and potential next-steps toward negotiation. He sugges ts that North Korea's progress on WMD be seen as a challenge to the broader nonproliferation regime\, and that Trump’s tweets and rhetoric lend themse lves to a new and dangerous escalation\, worrying allies South Korea and Ja pan\, and requiring a de-escalation of tensions. He argues that the US and international community expand the focus on missile and nuclear development to development and human security to win new leverage at the negotiation t able and establish a better foundation for peace and security.
Dr. Stephen Noerper is Korea Society senior directo r\, adjunct associate professor of political science at Columbia University \, and a fellow with Columbia's Weatherhead East Asian Institute and Pacifi c Forum CSIS. The author of more than seventy publications on US policy\, K orea and Northeast Asia\, Dr. Noerper taught prior as an associate professo r at NYU and Hawaii's Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies\, and as a v isiting professor at American University\, Waseda University and the Nation al University of Mongolia. He is a former US State Department senior analys t and Washington representative of the Nautilus Institute. Stephen is a gra duate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and London School of Econ omics\, and member of the National Committee on North Korea and Van Fleet F oundation board. He has appeared in recent months on the BBC\, Bloomberg\, CBC\, CNN\, NPR and VOA and in the Wall Street Journal\, UK Guardian\, and other print editions.