Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis

by Mike Chinoy

Book Overview

"Meltdown" is the riveting inside account of an American diplomatic disaster When George W. Bush took office in 2001, North Korea's nuclear program was frozen. Kim Jong-Il had signaled to the outgoing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312371535
• ISBN13: 9780312371531
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 405 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

An explosive insight into failed diplomacy and diplomatic belligerence

Journalist Mike Chinoy provides a detailed, readable, and highly informative account of the long running nuclear dispute with North Korea, starting with the 1992-94 crisis that was averted by Jimmy Carter's visit, the progress and understanding of the Clinton years that led to the Agreed Framework, and the near establishment of Diplomatic relations, the confrontation, rhetoric, and ultimately proliferation of the Bush years, and ultimately the mess the Obama Administration has inherited. While the North's motivations cannot be accurately ascertained, it would appear that the ultimate driving force is the need for security. The DPRK began its nuclear program in the wake of the Western victory of the Cold War and the end of Soviet Support, a climate wherein many in the West viewed the collapse of the regime as inevitable. The understanding of security was almost sealed under Clinton, in the visit of Marshall Jo Myong Rok to the White House in October 2000, leading to the agreed declaration of no hostile intent, and Madeleine Albright's subsequent visit to Pyongyang. What followed was an Administration unwilling to disavow the use of force against the DPRK, and steadfast in its refusal to recognize the sovereignty of the country. It becomes clear from reading that while former president George Bush had almost no opinion on North Korea before taking office, members of the administration such as Donald Rumsfeld, who led a commission calling for the abandonment of the Agreed Framework in the late 90s, and John Bolton, another long term critic of the Clinton era diplomacy, had hawkish designs on the DPRK long before September 11th. The hawks in the Bush administration had designs on both the Agreed Framework, and the 1972 Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty. North Korea was used as a posterchild for Missile Defense, and therefore had become a target of confrontation for Administration Hardliners. We learn that the Agreed Framework was effectively frozen during Bush's initial month's in office, and gradually unraveled shortly after the "Axis of Evil" designation in the 2002 State of the Union, and effectively terminated following a dubious intelligence report that the North had a Uranium Enrichment program. Most alarming is the rigid, confrontational approach of the Bush administration, refusing DPRK requests of direct talks, participating in the six party talks by only itterating of the DPRKs capitulation, and the sidelining and disenfranchisement of all the advocates of diplomacy, all the veterans of the Clinton talks, and anyone with a moderate line. Veteran Korea hands such as Jack Pritchard were effectively muzzled by Administration hardliners and effectively disenfranchised from the process. Hardliners hoping to torpedo the process did so through the appointment of people such as John Bolton, and later Jay Lefkowitz to key positions in the negotiation framework. Indeed, Bolton is recurrent throughout the book, presented as one of the most truly det

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my video complements what meltdown tried to do -- dispel the lies america spread about North Korea. meltdown is one of the rare books that gets the truth out on the warmongering diplomacy america is conducting around the world. in light of how obama has "changed" his "change" promise back to the bush/cheney policy, meltdown also foretell the meltdown of democracy, or deMobCrazy as a system by the mob, for the mob and of the mob.

Incredible Incompetence!

"Meltdown" tells how the U.S.' refusal to engage in serious diplomacy spurred North Korea to stage its nuclear breakout testing missiles and a nuclear bomb, followed by de-escalation after six years of needless brinkmanship led by the Bush administration. En route, President Bush also managed to personally insult the heads of North and South (also a Nobel Peace Prize winner) Korea, as well as his own chief negotiator and Secretary of State, undercut the logic of U.S. actions vs. Iraq (by largely ignoring N.K.), again rely on dubious intelligence for major decision-making, and display a general lack of common sense (eg. risking progress on nuclear issues to pursue a questionable impoundment of $25 million of N.K. funds. This same cowboy diplomacy pattern ("we don't negotiate - capitulate, then we'll talk" was was followed vs. Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and Iran - where it also failed, with disastrous results. In between, the reader is left wondering why Secretary of State Powell tolerated the treatment he and his department received (several of his underlings involved with N.K. resigned), amazed at the V.P. Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's close involvement in the N.K. issue - instead of avoiding Iraq War II and managing it better, perplexed by Secretary Rice's ineptness, and disappointed by the disjointed and childish decision-making (eg. screaming matches; "We won't talk to them because they're bad") at high levels of government. North Korea doesn't come out blameless in Chinoy's account either, though at least there is rationale for its actions. Bottom Line: "Meltdown" provides a credible and detailed accounting of how we almost incited Korean War II, possibly even WWIII. Administration actions in this instance parallel those taken vs. Russia, Iraq, and Palestine.

The Best Book on North Korea Policy To Date

In this excellent book, former CNN correspondent Mike Chinoy argues that the American failure to prevent North Korea from getting a nuclear bomb was the result of a combination of vicious, petty, and paralyzing bureaucratic warfare in Washington, an American unwillingness to negotiate, and North Korean brinkmanship. Chinoy makes his case through a well-written, surprisingly exciting, and scrupulously fair account of the personalities, events, and decisions that made (and broke) Bush administration's often-confusing North Korea policies. The high quality of this reporting is clearly a reflection of the thoroughness and fairness of Chinoy's research: he seems to have interviewed just about everyone who is anyone in North Korea policy-making, from John Bolton to Colin Powell, and he gives all the sides their due. Chinoy - who has been to North Korea something like 14 times, and reported on the North Korea issue for CNN for years - also offers some insights into why Pyongyang has often made seemingly irrational and dangerous decisions over the last eight or ten years. It's worth noting here that this is not the same thing as excusing or apologizing for North Korea's considerable duplicity and cruelty. Rather, Chinoy's examination of North Korean motives is a valuable and interesting contribution to our limited understanding of one of the most opaque countries in the world. To dismiss this as simply making excuses for North Korea's bad behavior is a gross and unfair oversimplification of a much more complex and sophisticated argument. Bottom line: Meltdown is, without a doubt, the definitive account of the North Korean nuclear crisis. It is a brilliantly reported, exceptionally even-handed, and insightful book - and a must-read for anyone who wants to genuinely understand one of the most pressing and vital US foreign policy challenges today.