What are the consequences of a successful nuclear program in North Korea?

Despite near-universal opposition to North Korea's moves to acquire nuclear weapons, Pyongyang is determined to succeed. It is only a matter of time before the North Koreans are able to combine their extant nuclear weapons capabilities with a viable delivery system. The threat multiplies in light of the North Koreans having already demonstrated the willingness and ability to sell nuclear technology, materials, and know-how to other nuclear aspirants. In North Korean Nuclear Operationality, Gregory J. Moore asks leading experts in Asian and security studies to consider the international consequences of a North Korea with operational nuclear weapons.

How will South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia react, and does it mean an arms race in the region is inevitable? How should the United States handle the situation, both diplomatically and strategically? North Korea has already destabilized the nuclear nonproliferation regime by being the only country ever to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and then openly test nuclear weapons. What are the repercussions for the nonproliferation regime of a successful North Korean move to nuclear weapons operationality?

Given the importance of these issues and the lack of transparency surrounding North Korean politics, North Korean Nuclear Operationality offers critical and timely insight. A foreword by Graham T. Allison, founding dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, sets the stage for a rigorous look at the threats North Korea poses to regional security and the nuclear nonproliferation regime.

Gregory J. Moore is an associate professor of international relations at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China. He is a member of the National (U.S.) Committee on United States–China Relations.