When George W. Bush took office in 2001, North Koreas nuclear program was frozen andKim Jong Il had signaledhe was ready to negotiate.Today, North Korea possesses as many as ten nuclearwarheads, and possiblythe means to provide nuclear material to rogue states or terrorist groups.How did this happen?
Drawing on more than two hundredinterviews with key players in Washington, Seoul, Tokyo, and Beijing, including Colin Powell, John Bolton, and exKorean president Kim Dae-jung, as well as insights gained during fourteen trips to Pyongyang,Mike Chinoytakes readers behind the scenes of secret diplomatic meetings, disputed intelligence reports, and Washington turf battles as well as inside the mysterious world of North Korea. Meltdownprovides a wealth of new material about a previously opaque series of eventsthat eventually led the Bush administration to abandon confrontation and pursue negotiations, and explains how the diplomatic process collapsed and produced the crisis the Obama administration confronts today.
