CENTRE FOR KOREAN RESEARCH - Oct 3 - 3pm

3:00-4:30pm
1855 West Mall, C.K. Choi Building Conference Room #120

Needless Quarrel: The Second North Korean Nuclear Crisis

By Professor James Matray (California State Univ. at Chico)

In this seminar, Professor James I. Matray will describe the events surrounding the Second North Korean Nuclear Crisis that began in October 2002. He will focus attention particularly on identifying the reasons why the Bush Administration decided to abandon the Agreed Framework of October 1994, as well as questioning the legitimacy of its claim that North Korea’s development of a Highly Enriched Uranium program justified initiating this confrontation. He then will describe the ongoing efforts to end the crisis, tracing negotiations at the Six Party Talks beginning in August 2003 in Beijing. Professor Matray will present evidence to support the conclusion that Bush’s neo-conservative advisors were responsible for implementing a militant and aggressive policy aimed at toppling the government of Kim Jong Il. Instead of achieving regime change, however, this U.S. policy has strained relations with South Korea, elevated the status of China in East Asia, and forced North Korea to expand its nuclear weapons program as an act of self-defense.

Professor James I. Matray is professor of history at California State University, Chico, where he completed his final term as department chair in August 2008. He has published more than forty articles and book chapters on U.S.-Korean relations during and after World War II. Author of The Reluctant Crusade: American Foreign Policy in Korea, 1941-1950 and Japan’s Emergence as a Global Power, his most recent books are Korea Divided: The 38th Parallel and the Demilitarized Zone and East Asia and the United States: An Encyclopedia of Relations Since 1784. During 2003 and 2004, Matray was an international columnist for the Donga Ilbo in South Korea. From 2005 to 2007, he served on the Board of Editors for Diplomatic History.