China Seminar | 12 April 2012

Six-Party Talks: Is China Part of the Solution, or Part of the Problem?

Ralph A. Cossa

The talk is timely as North Korea has a new leader and China will have its new leader at its 18th Congress. The presentation will look at the current state of PRC-DPRK (North Korea) relations and the role that China has played as facilitator of the currently moribund Six-Party Talks. We will examine China’s current approach to Pyongyang and discuss if current Chinese attitudes and policies make it more a part of the problem than of the solution when it comes to dealing with the North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

Ralph A. Cossa is President of the Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu, a non-profit, foreign policy research institute affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. He is senior editor of the Forum’s triannual journal, Comparative Connections. Mr. Cossa is a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum Experts and Eminent Persons Group. He is a founding member and current international co-chair of the multinational track two Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP). He co-chairs the CSCAP study group aimed at halting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Asia Pacific region and also serves as Executive Director of the U.S. Member Committee. He also sits on the Board of the Council on U.S.-Korean Security Studies and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London). He is a frequent contributor to regional newspapers, including the Japan Times, Korea Times, and International Herald Tribune.