North Korea Programme - Publications

Royal College of Defence Studies On Friday 3 October 2008, IISS-Asia hosted a group of Royal College of Defence Studies visitors in our Meeting Room.
North Korean Dossier North Korea's Weapons Programmes: A Net Assessment is a comprehensive and detailed evaluation of North Korea's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes and efforts to develop ballistic missiles. The book traces the historical development of North Korean programmes in each area and presents an assessment of current capabilities and estimates of future developments. The analysis explains how assessments of North Korea's programmes are based on judgements of...
North Korea's Weapons Programmes: A Net Asses Contents PrefaceFull text HTML & PDF> History: Disarmament Diplomacy with North KoreaFull text HTML & PDF> North Korea's Nuclear Weapons ProgrammeFull text HTML & PDF> North Korea's Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) ProgrammesFull text HTML & PDF> North Korea's Ballistic Missile ProgrammeFull text HTML> The Conventional Military Balance on the Korean PeninsulaFull text HTML> ConclusionFull text HTML & PDF> NotesFull tex
Preface Click here for the pdf version PrefaceThe International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) sees as one of its core missions the presentation to a wide public of the best available information on military holdings and strategy worldwide. For nearly half a century, the IISS has sought to provide facts on which intelligent policy analyses could be based. Each year we publish The Military Balance, an assessment of the military inventories held by some 170 countries. Especially since...
History History: Disarmament Diplomacy with North Korea Click here for the pdf version Overview Diplomatic efforts to deal with North Korea's programmes to acquire nuclear weapons and develop its ballistic missile capabilities have, over nearly 25 years, witnessed both success and failure. During this period, four different approaches have been tried. Firstly, beginning in the 1980s, the US led efforts to employ pressures and inducements to convince North Korea to adhere to the 1968 Treaty on t
North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Programme Click here for the pdf version North Korea's Nuclear Weapons ProgrammeOverview North Korea's nuclear efforts can be divided into four distinct phases. During the first phase (1959–80), the country's nuclear programme was primarily focused on basic training and research. North Korea relied on assistance from the Soviet Union, which trained North Korean scientists and engineers and helped to construct basic research facilities – including a small research reactor an
North Korea's Chemical and Weapons (CBW) Prog Click here for the pdf version North Korea's Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) Programmes Overview Deciphering the chemical and biological weapons capabilities of any country is a challenge. Chemical weapons (CW) programmes are difficult to trace because many of the facilities potentially involved in military activities are dual-use, with legitimate peaceful purposes, and are relatively easy to conceal. With biological weapons (BW), this is even more the case. With regard to North...
North Korea's Ballistic Missile Programme North Korea's Ballistic Missile ProgrammeOverview North Korea's interest in developing a ballistic missile capability appears to stem from its continuing efforts to establish and maintain robust military forces against South Korea, Japan and US forces in the region. As such, the reach of North Korea's missile programme has expanded from, in the 1960s and 1970s developing and deploying tactical artillery rockets, to developing and deploying short-range ballistic missiles
The Conventional Military Balance on the Kore The Conventional Military Balance on the Korean Peninsula Overview The modern political history of the Korean Peninsula is shaped by the legacy of the 1950–53 Korean War. This bitter and costly conflict ended in military stalemate, with North and South Korea continuing to be divided by the 38th parallel. Subsequently, North Korea amassed large and formidable conventional military forces, which are mainly forward-deployed near the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), seemingly in position to launch
Conclusion Click here for the pdf version ConclusionThese are the primary conclusions of our assessment of North Korea's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes, its ballistic missile programme and the conventional balance of forces on the Korean Peninsula. Nuclear Compared to other weapons programmes, North Korea's nuclear weapons efforts have received the lion's share of intelligence scrutiny and attention, especially by the US, which views nuclear proliferation as its...
Notes
Appendices Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),London, Moscow and Washington DC, 1 July 1968.Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula (NSDD), Seoul, 31 December 1991.Agreed Framework between the United States of America and the Democratic People'sRepublic of Korea, Geneva, 21 October 1994.
Foreword ForewordThe International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has pleasure in presenting this report, a summary of the proceedings of The Second IISS Regional Security Summit: The Gulf Dialogue. Following an inaugural meeting in 2004, this second summit was held, again in The Kingdom of Bahrain, from 2–4 December 2005. The Gulf Dialogue is intended to provide a forum for the national security establishments of the participating states to exchange views on the security challenges of the...
Introduction Introduction Click here for the pdf version The IISS Regional Security Summit, or Gulf Dialogue, is an exercise in 'paradiplomacy'.The IISS has for many years brought together government ministers and officials, bilaterally and multilaterally, in circumstances that they could not easily organise for themselves. Since 2002, the IISS has successfully convened the so-called Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, bringing together the defence ministers, chiefs of staff, national security of
Opening Remarks Opening Remarks Click here for the pdf version The Second IISS Regional Security Summit was opened by Dr John Chipman, Director of The International Institute for Strategic Studies. He said the Institute believed 'there was a gap to be filled in security consultations in this region'.Noting that the first Gulf Dialogue had been held a year earlier in Bahrain, Dr Chipman paid tribute to the Kingdom of Bahrain 'for their enthusiastic support for this innovation in regional...
Plenary session 1 The United States and Regional Security Click here for the pdf version The most taxing military engagement of the US – Iraq – is in the region, while Gulf states are the objects of much of the 'transformational diplomacy' on which the US is now engaged as part of its broader campaign against the sources of terrorism. Washington's engagement with the region is extensive. The US has a large force deployed in Iraq, where it is seeking to restore security, counter an...
Plenary session 2 Perspectives on Gulf Cooperation Council International Security Relationships Click here for the pdf version The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is the primary formal membership organisation of the lower and northern Gulf. Its six members – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman – have come into association with each other to reflect and to act in concert on issues of common concern and matters of mutual advantage.They examine policy across a broad a
Plenary session 3 The Nature of the Regional Terrorism Challenge Click here for the pdf version The session began with a stark analysis from Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah, President of the National Security Bureau, Kuwait, of the development of international terrorism, emphasising its organisational aspects and political goals. Sheikh Sabah listed measures that Kuwait had taken in education, religious training and democratic and social reforms to stop young people being led towards extremism. Over the...
Break-out Group 1 Maritime Security in the Region Click here for the pdf version The break-out group heard that the Gulf and the western Indian Ocean were 'maritime crossroads', where maintaining freedom of sea communication – particularly through such key chokepoints as the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al Mandab – was a vital interest both for the trade-dependent littoral states and for extra-regional stakeholders. The latter had a huge economic interest in the unimpeded flow of...
Break-out Group 2 Regional Military Strategies and Counterterrorism Challenges Click here for the pdf version Since the British withdrawal east of Suez some three and a half decades ago, the Gulf region has been confronted with myriad security challenges. he region has been jolted by an Iranian revolution, an Iran–Iraq war, an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, a conflict in Yemen, and now the ongoing conflict in Iraq. Today, security challenges centre on the future of stability in Iraq, the policies of an Iran go