William Perry and the 100-Fold Horror of a Second Korean War
A Secret cable from Seoul hid the gap between Washington's diplomatic optimism and the raw terror of a South Korean leadership facing total nuclear annihilation
By Roy Castellano ·
North Korea
Sanction Relief and the 1999 Calculation to Trade Food for Missiles
Thousands starved in North Korea while the NSC weighed how many calories were worth a missile moratorium, a strategy kept secret until the record's release.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Kim Dae Jung and the 1998 Gamble on a Market-Driven Pyongyang
While South Koreans faced a brutal economic collapse, a 1998 cable shows the U.S. managing a nuclear crisis to ensure Seoul followed a script for President Clinton's visit.
By Roy Castellano ·
Kim Dae Jung and the 1998 Plan to Buy a North Korean Soft Landing
For years, the risk of a nuclear North Korea was managed through heavy fuel oil and a fragile two-track policy that depended on a U.S. Congress that did not want to pay
By Eleanor Voss ·
Pyongyang's 1999 Missile Pause and the High Price of Survival
Kept confidential for years, a 1999 State Department analysis exposes how Washington tried to pivot a narrow missile freeze into a total surrender of North Korea's nuclear arsenal.
By Roy Castellano ·
Sun Youn Yun and the 1998 Fertilizer Gamble
Kept confidential for decades, a 1998 cable shows how a desperate need for fertilizer nearly broke a four-year silence while the U.S. feared a nuclear betrayal.
By Roy Castellano ·
1999 and the Redacted Price for North Korean Silence
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pushed a high-stakes gamble to lift sanctions on Pyongyang while keeping the specific inducements hidden from a skeptical House
By Roy Castellano ·
Kim Jong Il and the 50,000 Tons of American Grain
A "virtually flawless" diplomatic performance in June 2000 masked a transactional rebranding of a recluse dictator, kept confidential for years.
By Constance Bell ·
President Kim and the 4-Year Window for North Korean Nukes
A leaked transcript from 1998 reveals Seoul’s gamble that North Korea’s underground nuclear sites were years from completion—a calculation hidden behind a diplomatic protest.
By Roy Castellano ·
William Perry and the Redacted Terms of the 1999 Pyongyang Gamble
The Clinton administration offered to accept the legitimacy of a nuclear-armed regime in a deal kept secret for years, only to be rebuffed by a North Korea that viewed deference as weakness.
By Roy Castellano ·
William Perry and the 1999 Strategy to Stabilize the Korean Peninsula
Tasked by President Clinton in 1998, this strategy for the Korean Peninsula remained a closed-door exercise in managing a nuclear neighbor until its later archival release.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Nixon’s Reconnaissance Flights and the Strauss NPT Gambit
Pyongyang promises "severe punishment" for American incursions while German political infighting threatens to derail the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
By Constance Bell ·
William Perry and the 1999 Attempt to Trade Sovereignty for Nukes
A 1999 cable kept secret for decades describes a high-stakes gamble to neutralize North Korea's nuclear program by treating China as a tool for leverage while sidelining South Korean interests.
By Roy Castellano ·
Aleksander Panov and the Five Year Bet on Kim Jong Il
While the world watched a funeral in Pyongyang, diplomats in Moscow traded bets on a dictator's survival and the fate of deteriorating nuclear fuel rods.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Madeleine Albright and the 1998 Secret Race to Stop a Nuclear Hole
Kept secret for years, the record shows a high-stakes gamble in Kuala Lumpur and Pyongyang to stop North Korean nukes before Congressional funding vanished.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Kim Jong Il and the CIA's 2002 Expiration Date
Intelligence analysts once bet the North Korean regime would vanish within five years, but the tactical plans for the ensuing chaos remained blacked out for decades.
By Roy Castellano ·