Video
[Plenary Session 4] North Korea’s Nuclear Threat
- Hit
- 14
- Date
- 26-04-10 13:52
Session: Plenary Session 4: North Korea’s Nuclear Threat
Date/Time: April 8, 2026 / 16:10-17:30
Speakers:
Bruce Bennett, RAND Corporation
Ambassador Kim Gunn, National Assembly, ROK
Kim Joon Hyung, National Assembly, ROK
Michael Schiffer, Scalare Advisors
Georgy Toloraya, Russian Academy of Sciences
Mitoji Yabunaka, Osaka University
Zhu Feng, Nanjing University
Moderator: Ambassador Chun Yungwoo, Chairman, Korean Peninsula Future Forum
Rapporteur: Dr Edward Howell, University of Oxford and Visiting Fellow (Non-Resident)
Session Sketch:
The fourth plenary session, entitled “North Korea’s Nuclear Threat,” was chaired by Ambassador Chun Yungwoo, Chairman of the Korean Peninsula Future Forum. Ambassador Chun outlined how “a nuclear-armed North Korea is here to stay with us for long, and North Korean nuclear threat is growing bigger and more sophisticated and coming closer.”
Bruce Bennett from RAND highlighted how the US’s ongoing war with Iran has confirmed to Kim Jong Un that North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons “has meant that the United States has been deterred from attacking North Korea, but not Iran.” Kim Jong Un remains “determined to build hundreds of nuclear weapons, such that the United States becomes even less willing to carry out its deterrence commitments with its allies.” Given North Korea’s plan for succession and construction of underground facilities to protect its leaders, the elimination of the North Korean regime may be even harder than that of Iran. Mr. Bennett called for a “more tailored deterrence response” in making the West “better prepared” for an increasingly nuclear North Korea.
* The views expressed herein are summaries written by rapporteurs and may not necessarily reflect the views of the speakers, their affiliated institutions, or the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.