Gallucci Addresses Council, UNF

“The greatest threat to the United States is not North Korea with nuclear weapons,” said former Ambassador at Large Robert Gallucci, “it’s terrorists with nuclear weapons.”

Speaking to an attentive audience of 715 at the UNF University Center, Ambassador Gallucci identified the highest U.S. priority as stopping Pyongyang from selling plutonium or uranium to terrorist groups who might then develop nuclear devices with which to attack American cities.

Chief U.S. negotiator of the 1994 “Agreed Framework” with North Korea, Ambassador Gallucci, currently Dean of the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, reviewed the last 25 years of U.S.-North Korea relations, focusing on our efforts to curtail Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons capability.

“In 1994 we had options,” Ambassador Gallucci observed, “like military force, destroying plutonium storage sites, etc.” But today, he added, we have only sanctions, “which means doing nothing.”

Answering the question, “What should we do now?”, Ambassador Gallucci favored negotiations with the North Koreans, even with the understanding, based on their past behavior, that we probably can’t trust them to uphold their commitments. “We would have to verify everything,” he said, “and that’s not easy…but negotiating is the only safe thing to do.”

-Ronald P. Myers

Board of Directors

World Affairs Council of Jacksonville

Sponsored By: Water Street Capital                    Co-Hosted With:

                       and