Often overshadowed by higher-profile conflicts, North Korea’s nuclear intentions have concerned the United States for many years. Now it is a high-stakes test of diplomacy in which China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea have joined the two past disputants in an effort to work things out.

Washington’s point man in all this is James Kelly (MBA ’68), assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Kelly, who previously served in the White House and the Pentagon during the Reagan administration, was tapped for his current post in 2001. In 2002, Kelly confronted the North Koreans. They admitted to the existence of nuclear programs they previously had denied. Kelly has since told the North Koreans that the United States insists upon “complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement” of all nuclear programs, including plutonium- and uranium-based weapons (New York Times, March 15, 2004).

This diplomatic dance also has elements of cat and mouse. According to the Times, the North Koreans demanded that Kelly show proof that they had a nuclear-enrichment program. Replied Kelly, “If I were to give you all that information, it might make it easier for you to conceal it.”

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