The U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS (USKI) and the Global America Business Institute (GABI) are pleased to invite you to a speaker and discussion series featuring presentations on subjects relevant to the 123 Agreement between the US and South Korea:

Next Discussion

US 123 Agreements: Perspective of the Nuclear Industry

Guest Speaker: Amir Shahkarami, Senior Vice President and CEO, Exelon Nuclear Partners

Amir Shahkarami is Senior Vice President of Exelon Generation Company and CEO of Exelon Nuclear Partners, where he is responsible for all domestic and international business development projects. He has nearly 30 years of experience in the nuclear industry, with ten years at Exelon. Most recently, he was Exelon Nuclear Senior Vice President of Technical Services, in which he was responsible for nuclear fuel, engineering, project management, license renewal, industry organizations, innovation, and Exelon Nuclear’s international exchange program. Prior to joining Exelon, Mr. Shahkarami held several key positions of increasing responsibility at Entergy at several nuclear sites and corporate for ten years. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Engineering from Tulane University, his MBA from Mississippi College, and his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Louisiana State University.

 RSVP: To register, please contact Alan Ahn at alanahn@thegabi.com or 202-499-7978.

While the North Koreans may have refrained from conducting a nuclear test and subsequent missile tests after their failed rocket launch in April 2012,  recent satellite imagery shows that the North is still continuing development of their missile development and the launch pad at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station (Tongchang-ri). USKI’s 38 North was the first to report on these developments, analyzing imagery from DigitalGlobe. According to 38 North analysts, the North has conducted liquid-fueled rocket engine tests at the Sohae facility as recently as September, and has continuing improvements to the Sohae launch pad. Full analysis and satellite imagery can be found here: http://38north.org/2012/11/sohae111212/.

Just after Barack Obama was re-elected to a second term as President of the United States and just a month before a hotly contested presidential race in South Korea, the developments at Sohae have reminded both candidates of why North Korea policy coordination in these new adminstrations is important and of the potential for provocations at the outset of the two Presidents’ terms.

See CNN coverage of the 38 North article here: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2012/11/14/clancy-nkorea-rocket-test.cnn.

USKI’s 38 North and Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) have launched new resources on the history of KEDO to help increase public understanding of what this project was and what it accomplished.

When the South Korean fast ferry Hankyoreh sailed out of North Korean waters into the cold wind and waves of the East Sea on the morning of 8 January 2006, it carried a sad and somber group of South Korean workers, ROK officials, and personnel from the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO). These were all that remained of a decade long multinational effort transforming what in 1994 had been only a paper notion into a modern construction complex of steel and concrete. KEDO’s profile on the North Korean landscape was unmistakable, its impact on Pyongyang profound. Yet, real knowledge and understanding about the organization in public and official circles in South Korea, Japan, and the United States was terribly thin at the beginning, and remains so to this day. ~ A History of KEDO 1994-2006

In conjunction with the release of CISAC’s new book,  A History of KEDO 1994-2006–an oral history project meant to preserve what remains of the living memory about KEDO, of the thinking that went into setting up the organization, the efforts to coordinate plans and translate them to realities on the ground in North Korea, and the struggle to maintain a sense of sanity while KEDO was pushed and pummeled into disintegration–USKI’s 38 North launches a new video: “Reflections on KEDO.” In this video, Joel Wit (38 North founder and Visiting Scholar at the US-Korea Institute at SAIS), hosts a conversation with Ambassador Stephen Bosworth (former US Special Representative for North Korea Policy and current Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University) and Robert Carlin (CISAC Visiting Scholar), about their experiences with KEDO. All three were involved with KEDO at different times in its ten year history and provide insights into what it was like on the ground building this multilateral organization. They discuss some of the major challenges in dealing with the North Koreans, as well as the cultural learning curve faced by KEDO’s multicultural staff.  From the perspective of direct experience, they examine both KEDO’s accomplishments and the opportunities missed by the organization’s abrupt termination. In the final segment, Ambassador Bosworth also reflects on the Obama administration’s North Korea policy and provides his views on how to improve relations with the North in the future.

My personal conclusion was they [North Koreans] were very serious about what they were doing—the enterprise that we were involved in. This was not something just being done for show. For them, it was not just KEDO and the Agreed Framework and light water reactors, but it was clear for many of them this was important because it was setting a series of precedents for how North Korea could begin to engage with rest of the world in a more direct and active fashion. ~ Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, “Reflections on KEDO,” a 38 North interview

Find the 38 North video here.

The upcoming Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in Seoul, South Korea, will raise the international profile of the threat of nuclear terrorism and focus attention on the need to better secure weapons-usable nuclear materials in all corners of the globe. It follows the first NSS held in March 2010 in Washington, DC. Another summit will be held in the Netherlands in 2014. This sequencing of biennial, high-level international political summits has underscored the global importance of addressing the threat of nuclear terrorism. As a result, the NSS has the potential to become the preeminent international forum where the state of global nuclear material security is evaluated and where new commitments are made to improve the world’s defenses against nuclear terrorism. But, to fully realize its potential, the NSS process will need to evolve and participating countries must be willing to accept changes that will strengthen the nuclear material security regime.

In this paper, Kenneth Luongo (Partnership for Global Security) outlines the various elements of the current nuclear security regime, and suggests a new and comprehensive architecture that emphasizes demonstrated performance and accountability with clear but flexible standards.

Download “Nuclear Security Governance for the 21st Century: Assessment and Action Plan,” by Kenneth Luongo.

For related papers, visit our Nuclear Security Summit page.

A 1986 National Intelligence Estimate concluded that a small number of groups may have been capable of high-level nuclear terrorism, if they had access to a weapon or sufficient fissile material, but were inhibited by the political consequences.

Access to fissile material is key—both for terrorists trying to attain a nuclear capability, and those racing to stop them. And global stocks of fissile material—highly enriched uranium and plutonium separated from spent fuel—are roughly 2,000 metric tons and growing. Moreover, this material is spread across dozens of sites, with hundreds of buildings, in 30 some countries, under varying security conditions. Consequently, the security of fissile material is not merely a theoretical concern.

In the latest installment of the USKI Working Paper Series on the Nuclear Security Summit process, William Tobey (Belfer Center, Harvard University) illustrates the very real threat of nuclear terrorism that looms today, which has been the impetus for the Nuclear Security Summit process, and suggests what measures the international community should be taking to ensure a higher standard of security for all nuclear material.

Download “Building a Better International Nuclear Security Standard,” by William Tobey.

For related papers, visit our Nuclear Security Summit page.

As Seoul prepares to host the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit, the meeting will probably resemble its predecessor in many ways. Three years after President Obama’s Prague speech, nuclear security still offers some of the “lowest hanging fruit” in terms of progress on the nuclear agenda. The context for the 2012 summit, however, is quite different. There is less optimism about progress toward nuclear disarmament, no resolution in sight for the challenges posed by the North Korean and Iranian nuclear weapons programs, and less optimism about peaceful nuclear energy following the devastating accident in March 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

In this paper, Sharon Squassoni explores the intersections of nuclear safety and nuclear security and how this discussion will likely be addressed at the upcoming 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit.

Download, “Nuclear Safety and Security at the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit,” by Sharon Squassoni.

Find related papers and resources on our Nuclear Security Summit pages.

As a complement to the objectives detailed in the 2010 Washington Communiqué and Work Plan, a number of countries made national pledges to take specific measures to improve global nuclear security. These ranged from domestic, unilateral measures to cooperative, multinational contributions that bolster global nuclear security.

In advance of the Seoul Summit, this paper provides an overview of the steps that countries have taken to implement their voluntary, national commitments and demonstrates where needs and gaps of intention remain. The information in this report was obtained primarily from open source publications and is accurate as of February 2012.

Download “2010 Nuclear Security Summit National Commitment Implementation: Steps in the Fight Against Nuclear Terrorism,” by Michelle Cann.

For related papers, visit our Nuclear Security Summit page.