Event recorded live at IWP, DC, on February 16, 2023.

This lecture is part of the Asia Initiative Lecture Series.

About the Lecture:

The North Korean regime’s increasing rate and diversity of missile launches shows that Pyongyang is making significant progress toward implementing a more capable and flexible nuclear strategy, including pre-emptive strikes with strategic, tactical, and battlefield nuclear weapons.

North Korea’s exponential increase in missile launches, combined with extensive military exercises and provocations close to the inter-Korean border, have increased regional tensions and risk triggering a military crisis that would involve the United States and its allies.

Pyongyang continues to reject all attempts by the U.S., South Korea, and Japan for diplomatic dialogue. Washington and its allies must respond resolutely to the growing North Korean threat while simultaneously seeking ways to reduce the potential for stumbling into war.

About the Speaker:

Mr. Bruce Klingner specializes in Korean and Japanese affairs as the senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center.

Klingner’s analysis and writing about North Korea, South Korea, and Japan, as well as related issues, are informed by his 20 years of service at the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Klingner, who joined Heritage in 2007, has testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

He is a frequent commentator in U.S. and foreign media. His articles and commentary have appeared in major American and foreign publications and he is a regular guest on broadcast and cable news outlets. He is a regular contributor to the international and security sections of The Daily Signal.

From 1996 to 2001, Klingner was CIA’s deputy division chief for Korea, responsible for the analysis of political, military, economic, and leadership issues for the president of the United States and other senior U.S. policymakers. In 1993-1994, he was the chief of the CIA’s Korea branch, which analyzed military developments during a nuclear crisis with North Korea.

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