Mike Chinoy, the Pacific Council’s Edgerton Senior Fellow for Asia and author of the just-published and critically-received book, Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis will discuss the main themes in his book, update us on the recent developments in the Bush administration’s policy toward North Korea and assess what other policy options the next U.S. president might pursue.

Drawing on over 200 interviews conducted in Washington, Seoul, Tokyo and other Asian capitals – as well as insights gained from Mr. Chinoy’s 14 trips to Pyongyang – Meltdown provides a detailed account of the behind-the-scenes policy debates within the Bush administration and other governments that drove the recent confrontation over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.  It also offers important new details of the impact the crisis had on U.S. relations with its key regional allies – Japan and South Korea – and on Washington’s fraught relationship with Beijing. 

» Washington Post’s review of the "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis"

Mike Chinoy is one of America’s keenest observers of Asian affairs, having reported on the most important events in the region for almost thirty years. He previously served as CNN’s senior Asia correspondent (2000-06), its Hong Kong bureau chief (1996-2000), and Beijing bureau chief (1987-95).  Earlier, he spent four years as a reporter with NBC’s Hong Kong Bureau, and from 1975-78 he was a Hong Kong-based freelance reporter, contributing to CBS News as well as Newsday, The Far Eastern Economic Review and other publications.

Mr. Chinoy received an Emmy Award, an ACE Award, a Dupont Award and a Peabody Award for his coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crisis.  His critically-acclaimed reporting during those weeks has been credited with strengthening CNN as an authoritative force in international news coverage. Mr. Chinoy has also covered North Korea extensively, traveling there 14 times since 1989.  In April 1994, he became the first broadcaster to file live TV reports from North Korea, and was the only journalist to travel with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on his historic trip to Pyongyang in June of that year.