Multilateral Crisis Management Of The North Korean Nuclear Issue Discussed

As an international crisis which involves interests of the important states in the North-East Asia, the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula originates in long-term antagonism and deep mistrust between the US and North Korea. The international crisis management is a series of steps taken in the urgent condition and in a very limited time in order to prevent crisis from escalating and from being transformed into violent conflict or even war and at the same time, to produce an outcome that generally satisfies all the parties. A bilateral crisis which is difficult to be resolved directly between two parties and also concerns common interest of all the parties could be managed in a multilateral framework, because the complex coordination and the interaction of different interests could help to resolve crisis. At the same time, the advancement of the management will gradually lead to its institutionalization. Finally, the management could be judged through some evaluation standards.The management of the Korean nuclear issue could be analyzed in the theoritical framework mentioned above. It was very difficult to reconcile the two countries and there was little chance to make either of them compromise first, which made almost fruitless a resolution through bilateral means. The crisis is at the edge of escalation and it will exercise important influences on the security of states in Northeast Asia and also Asia-Pacific region. The six-party talks have so far been an efficient way of multilateral management for the crisis and China has been playing an important role of mediation in it. The six-party talks has moderated tensions in a certain degree, prevented the crisis from becoming violent conflict and avoided nuclear proliferation. The talks continue and develop towards the construction of the regime of regional multilateral security cooperation despite some reverses. Nevertheless, it exists some problems. For example, it hasn't resolved the core problem of crisis; its low degree of institutionalization and its lack of mandatory mesures caused some limited escalation and the delay of resolution. The management needs to be ameliorated in practice.