The SIPRI Update for December 2013 is out now—read it online, or subscribe to receive the SIPRI Update in your inbox each month.
In this issue we present an essay by Mathieu Duchâtel and Phillip Schell on China’s economic engagement with North Korea. They write:
China has played an important role in trying to curb the North Korean nuclear programme. Since the suspension of the Six-Party Talks in 2009, China has returned to an approach that prioritizes closer economic and political ties but has been criticized for undermining international efforts prioritizing sanctions, economic strangulation and diplomatic isolation. The mainstream view in the Chinese strategic community, however, is that a policy of economic engagement can serve the ultimate goal of nuclear disarmament.
This month’s SIPRI essay is timed to coincide with the release of a new SIPRI Policy Paper, also by Mathieu Duchâtel and Phillip Schell, China’s Policy on North Korea: Economic Engagement and Nuclear Disarmament.