Robert Carlin, Visiting Scholar, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation; Co-author, The Two Koreas

In conversation with Philip Yun, Executive Director, Ploughshares Fund; Former Senior Member of U.S. Delegation and Negotiator in Peace Talks with North Korea

Robert Carlin asserts that January 2001 was when U.S. policies regarding North Korea collapsed. Until then, seven years of engagement with Pyongyang had led — however erratically and imperfectly — to progress on several important issues for American national security. Carlin says that progress was abandoned by the Bush administration, with negative long-term consequences for inter-Korean, U.S.-South Korean and U.S.-PRC relations.
A CIA and the State Department veteran with a focus on Korea for 31 years and a renowned expert on North Korea, Carlin will dissect the confusing 20-year history of Washington’s engagement with North Korea, including myths and misperceptions, which he says have made it nearly impossible for the public and government alike to discuss, much less decide, how to cope with the consequences on a pragmatic basis.