Journalism professor Mike Chinoy appeared on NPR’s "Fresh Air" with Dave Davies on Aug. 6 to discuss his recently released book, Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis.

Drawing on over 200 interviews and 14 trips to Pyongyang, Meltdown outlines the history of the policy debate over North Korea’s planned nuclear ambitions and the Bush administration’s ultimately failed campaign to halt them.

“After 9/11, after the successful toppling of the Taliban and of Saddam Hussein, that was the high point of the hard-line, neo-conservative ascendancy within the Bush administration,” Chinoy explained. “It soon became a bitter struggle that led to incoherence—right hand and left hand operating at cross purposes—which in the end paralyzed American policy.”

Chinoy attributes this paralysis to a series of missteps – a weak American presence in Asia as a whole, loss of relations with allies like South Korea and Japan, and increasing nuclear ambitions from “rogue states” – while North Korea was being driven by the strong desire for “regime survival” after the fall of its communist allies.
“The recent easing of tensions has come after six years of a failed policy of trying to pressure and intimidate the regime of Kim Jong-Il, “ Chinoy said. “Over the years, this only encouraged North Korea to ramp up its weapons program even more.”

Chinoy is recognized as one of the world’s leading journalists in Asian affairs. He has worked as the Senior Asia Correspondent, Beijing Bureau Chief and Hong Kong Bureau Chief for CNN from 1983 to 1995. 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.

He currently teaches an international journalism seminar for students going to Hong Kong.

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