Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program

February 24. 2023

On February 20, 2023, CNS Distinguished Professor of Practice Dr. Siegfried Hecker gave a book talk on his newly released book, Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2023). The event was formatted in a question-and-answer style that encouraged discussion and in-depth exchanges among the experts, professors, and students who attended both in-person and virtually.

Among the major themes explored during the discussion were North Korea’s relationship with China, Russia, and the USSR; the evolution of the way in which North Korea communicates its technical advances to outside audiences; North Korea’s nuclear exports; Dr. Hecker’s approach to writing a technical book for a broad audience; insights readers gain from Dr. Hecker’s on-the-ground knowledge; and the notion of “pattern breaks” as articulated in Zachary Shore’s book, A Sense of the Enemy: The High Stakes History of Reading Your Rival’s Mind.  Dr. Hecker linked the technical and diplomatic worlds in North Korea through extraordinarily detailed anecdotes from his seven trips to North Korea between 2004 and 2010.

Sarah Bidgood, Director of the Eurasia Nonproliferation Program at CNS, moderated the discussion.

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