Book Review: North Korean Nuclear Operationality

North Korean Nuclear Operationality Gregory J. Moore, Editor Hardcover, 302 pages ISBN 978-1-4214-1094-4 Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore, MD, 2014 Richly detailed and logically laid out, Moores book is an excellent analysis of North Koreas acquisition of nuclear arms and the consequences to its neighbors. A wide spectrum of issues concerning this threat to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) are examined including the long evolution of the crisis, the motivations behind the North Korean regimes seeking nuclear weapons, and the uniqueness of the predicament that has trapped North Korea in its competitive dilemma with South Korea and leaving the six nations dealing with the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) more or less impotent to punish it or deal effectively with it. This effort utilizing the expertise of twelve specialists from Japan, Australia, China (the author is based in Zhejiang University), South Korea, Russia, and the United States, brings the reader a very broad perspective and in so doing elevates the examination well beyond the U.S. vs. DPRK (us vs. them) argument. The language is very accessible, free for the most part of political science jargon, and not until the much appreciated last summary chapter, also free of political science analysisa plus for nuclear scientists seeking to understand the nuts and bolts of the crisis.