"With nearly twenty-five million citizens, a secretive totalitarian dictatorship, and active nuclear and ballistic missile weapons programs, North Korea presents some of the world's most difficult foreign policy challenges. For decades, the United States and its partners have employed multiple strategies in an effort to prevent Pyongyang from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Washington has moved from the Agreed Framework under President Bill Clinton to George W. Bush's denunciation of the regime as part of the 'axis of evil' to a posture of 'strategic patience' under Barack Obama. Given that a new president will soon occupy the White House, policy expert Walter C. Clemens Jr. argues that now is the time to reconsider US diplomatic efforts in North Korea. Clemens poses the question, 'Can, should, and must we negotiate with a regime we regard as evil?' Weighing the needs of all the stakeholders--including China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea--he concludes that the answer is yes. After assessing nine other policy options, he makes the case for engagement and negotiation with the regime. There still may be time to freeze or eliminate North Korea's weapons of mass destruction. Grounded in philosophy and history, this volume offers a fresh road map for negotiators and outlines a grand bargain that balances both ethical and practical security concerns."--Provided by publisher.

Includes maps of: Korean Peninsula.

I. Roots of twenty-first-century problems : Why care about North Korea? -- How Korea became Korea -- How Korea became Japan -- How one Korea became two -- How a civil war became global -- How North Korea got the bomb -- II. Policy dilemmas : Human insecurity and the duty to protect -- Facing up to evil -- Must we choose between peace and human rights? -- Why is North Korea not the South? -- GRIT at Panmunjom? How to cope with conflict -- III. Opportunities aborted : The agreed framework sets the stage for a grand bargain -- Bush gets tough with North Korea -- Six-party hopes and missed opportunities -- Obama and Kim Jong Un : approach and avoid -- North Korea's weapons of mass destruction -- IV. Policy options amid uncertainty : Revolutionary pariahs : why North Korea is not Iran -- Basic forces and Fortuna versus human factors -- What to do about -- or with -- China? -- What do to about -- or with -- North Korea?