IQ2 debate: Negotiations can denuclearize North Korea

Kim Jong Un and President Trump
This combination of file photos created on March 9, 2018, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the fifth conference of the Workers' Party of Korea Cell Chairpersons in this photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency taken on Dec. 23, 2017, and released on Dec. 24, 2017, left, and President Trump speaking to the press in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 9, 2018.
Saul Loeb and KCNA via KNS, AFP | Getty Images

How should the United States respond to North Korea's rapidly advancing nuclear capabilities?

President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have agreed to the first face-to-face North Korea-U.S. summit since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Some experts suggest the summit on June 12th between Trump and Kim might provide a pivotal diplomatic opportunity to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

Others are more pessimistic, arguing that we've been down this road before and that denuclearizing North Korea is more of a pipe dream than a legitimate strategic goal.

Can Trump and Kim strike a deal to halt North Korea's nuclear aggression? Or will the talks inevitably fail, heightening tensions and increasing the likelihood of fatal miscalculations?

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Intelligence Squared debate motion: Negotiations can denuclearize North Korea.

Keynote:

Suki Kim, investigative journalist & award-winning author of "Without You, There is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korean Elite."

Debaters FOR the motion:

Suzanne DiMaggio, director, The U.S.-Iran Initiative, and senior fellow, New America.

Bonnie Jenkins, senior fellow, Brookings Institution, and former ambassador, U.S. State Department.

Debaters AGAINST the motion:

Sue Mi Terry, former CIA Analyst, and senior fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Mira Rapp-Hooper, senior research scholar, Yale University.