In December we brought you early word of a controversial new article by Korea expert Selig Harrison in Foreign Affairs.
Harrison argued that the evidence for a North Korean uranium enrichment program (in violation of the 1994 ‘Agreed Framework’) was far more tenuous than the administration had led us to believe.
In the wake of the collosal intelligence failure over Iraq (a mix of political gamesmanship and genuine intelligence failure) such a root-and-branch questioning of consensus opinion gets a far more open-minded reading.
In their next issue to be released tomorrow, Foreign Affairs has a roundtable on the article — two critiques and a response from Harrison. What makes the exchange so notable is that one of the critiques is co-authored by Mitch Reiss, who was until quite recently the director of policy planning at State, and the former head of KEDO and Robert Galluci, who played a key role in Korea policy and negotiations under the Clinton administration.
The title of their counterpoint — Dead To Rights — tells the tale. Their counter-argument is thorough and rejects virtually every point Harrison makes, taking him particularly to task over his explanation of various technical questions which bear directly on how and what we can and cannot know about the North Korean nuclear program.
You’ll want to read this.
