Critical Mass
North Korea and the Bomb
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May 19, 2005
Kim Jong Il’s North Korea is one of the gravest national security challenges facing the United States. Amidst disturbing reports that North Korea may be preparing to test a nuclear weapon, the Center for American Progress brings together Charles Pritchard, President Bush’s former special envoy to North Korea, and Daniel Poneman, one of the prime architects of the 1994 accord that froze North Korea’s nuclear program, to discuss the current situation and the implications if North Korea carries out a test.
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| Panelists |
 Philip (P.J.) Crowley is a Senior Fellow and Director of National Defense and Homeland Security at the Center for American Progress. During the Clinton administration, Crowley was Special Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Affairs, serving as Senior Director of Public Affairs for the National Security Council. Prior to that, he was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. In all, Crowley was a spokesman for the United States government and United States military for 28 years, 11 of those years at the Pentagon and three at the White House. He served for 26 years in the United States Air Force, retiring at the rank of colonel in September 1999. He is a veteran of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. During the Kosovo conflict, he was temporarily assigned to work with then NATO Secretary General Javier Solana. Prior to joining American Progress, he served as a national spokesman for the property/casualty insurance industry, focusing on strategic industry issues that included the impact of terrorism on commercial insurance in the aftermath of the World Trade Center tragedy and the effect of asbestos litigation on the broader economy. A native of Massachusetts, P.J. is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross. |
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 Charles L. Pritchard is a Visiting Fellow at The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, where his focus is on United States policy toward North Korea as well as the evolving nature of the United States-Japan foreign and security relationship. Ambassador Pritchard served as Ambassador and Special Envoy for Negotiations to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and United States representative to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization in the administration of President George W. Bush until 1 September 2003. Prior to that, he served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Asian Affairs in the administration of President William J. Clinton. During the Clinton administration, Ambassador Pritchard was also the Director of Asian Affairs in the National Security Council and Deputy Chief Negotiator for the Four Party Peace Talks, which aimed at reducing the tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Ambassador Pritchard is a former United States Army officer and attaché in Tokyo, Japan. |
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 Daniel B. Poneman co-author of Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis, is a Principal of The Scowcroft Group, where he provides strategic advice to the Group clients in the energy, aerospace, information technology, and manufacturing industries, among others. From 1993 through 1996, Mr. Poneman served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Nonproliferation and Export Controls at the National Security Council, with responsibilities for the development and implementation of U.S. policy in such areas as peaceful nuclear cooperation, missile technology and space-launch activities, sanctions determinations, chemical and biological arms control efforts, and conventional arms transfer policy. During that period, he participated in negotiations and consultations with governments in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union. Mr. Poneman joined the NSC staff in 1990 as Director of Defense Policy and Arms Control, after service in the Department of Energy. He has served as a member of the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, as well as other federal advisory panels. |
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