North Korea: Keep Cool and Carry on?
Kevin Rudd on CNBC
On May 1, 2017 Asia Society Policy Institute President Kevin Rudd spoke to CNBC's "Squawk Box" about the North Korean nuclear program and crisis management in the Korean Peninsula.
Last week, North Korea conducted yet another failed missile test, less than two weeks prior to elections in South Korea. Rudd counseled against overreacting to the rhetoric coming out Pyongyang, which has historically engaged in such behavior. Warning that "tensions [are] at a high level," he argued that it was important for all sides to avoid any incident that might result in dangerous escalation.
China has been unable to constrain North Korea's behavior, and Rudd said that "the Chinese and Xi Jinping, in particular, are pulling their hair out" because of the latest North Korean missile test. He recommended that "rather than have parallel diplomacies between Beijing and Washington directed at Pyongyang, we actually need a combined diplomacy directed at Pyongyang in order to bring about policy change in the North Korean capital." (2 min., 41. sec.)