North Korea

Douglas Dreger
UC Berkeley associate professor of geophysics. He is working on a project to better distinguish the seismic signatures of a nuclear detonation from an earthquake. Seismic waves carry distinct signatures that can be used to determine details about their source.

Phone: (510) 643-1719
E-mail: dreger@seismo.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Robert Sanders, (510) 643-6998 or rsanders@berkeley.edu

T.J. Pempel
Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies and professor of political science at UC Berkeley. He is chair of the Working Group on Northeast Asian Security of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asian Pacific. His current research is on Asian regionalism.

Phone: (510) 642-2809
E-mail: pempel@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Yasmin Anwar, (510) 643-7944 or yanwar@berkeley.edu

Neil Joeck
Adjunct professor of political science at UC Berkeley and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He served from 2004 to 2005 as director for counter-proliferation strategy at the National Security Council. He was primarily responsible for India and Pakistan proliferation issues, but also worked on the Bush-Putin Bratislava summit, the Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, and Department of Homeland Security and multilateral regime issues.

Phone: (925) 423-4588
E-mail: joeck1@llnl.gov
Media Relations contact: Janet Gilmore, (510) 642-5685 or jangilmore@berkeley.edu

Per Peterson
UC Berkeley professor and former chair of nuclear engineering. He says that the success of North Korea's nuclear testing is not yet clear. "The range of yields vary widely from rather poor performance, and possibly even a chemical explosion, to what you'd expect from a simple fission weapon," he says. "Even if the testing performed at the lower end, such nuclear weapons could still be a significant threat if used. On the other hand, it would also say they've got substantial technical problems in their design. Policy makers have to deal with a significant amount of uncertainty when it comes to North Korea." He notes that public accounts say North Korea has enough nuclear material for seven to 10 explosions. "I would not be surprised if North Korea conducts one or two more tests," he says. "That would be reasonable considering the total amount of nuclear material they may have."

Phone: (510) 643-7749
E-mail: peterson@nuc.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 or scyang@berkeley.edu

Steven Vogel
Professor of political science at UC Berkeley. He has written extensively on Japanese politics, industrial policy, trade and defense policy and has worked as a reporter for the Japan Times in Tokyo and as a freelance journalist in France.
Vogel says Japanese leaders are motivated by domestic political considerations to take a strong stand on this issue and that the apparent nuclear test feeds into Japan's own domestic debate over its military role and capabilities.

Phone: (510) 642-4658
E-mail: svogel@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Janet Gilmore, (510) 642-5685 or jangilmore@berkeley.edu