We are extremely alarmed by reports that North Korea is preparing for another nuclear test. We have now reached a new stage of crisis on the Korean Peninsula.
To prepare and respond to the growing emergency, Ploughshares Fund has activated a network of partners and grantees to do everything we can to help pull us back from the brink of an accidental war.
We are advocating a viable yet firm approach that freezes North Korea's nuclear weapons program in the short term while setting the stage for their elimination in the long term.
In January, Ploughshares Fund started an emergency response effort to stop nuclear threats wherever they come from — whether it's Washington, DC, North Korea or elsewhere. But we need you to continue fighting for everyone's right to a future safe from nuclear weapons.
So please, consider a gift to Ploughshares Fund to help us respond urgently and effectively to nuclear threats like North Korea.
Our community has been working around the clock to provide the media with crucial analysis, painting a clearer picture of the real and perceived threats and putting forth the best policies and actions for defusing them.
As I explained earlier this week on CNN International, there are only lousy options on the Korean Peninsula. But taunting the North's unpredictable and dangerous leader Kim Jong-un on Twitter is not policy, nor is it a solution.
We must do everything we can to stop North Korea from advancing its nuclear weapons program any further. We must also do everything we can to de-escalate the tit-for-tat show of force, which could easily spin out of control. If the United States and its regional allies don't find a way to ease tensions soon, deadly conflict could erupt on the Korean Peninsula. We could even be facing a second Korean war with a nuclear-armed North.
Your support means we can continue funding some of the country's leading experts who provide essential insight on North Korea. Grantees like Joel Wit of 38North, the National Committee on North Korea and NK News are bringing critical, clear-eyed analysis to the media, policymakers and the public. Their work and their voices are essential to understanding — and how to best resolve — the North Korean threat. These groups are especially critical when it comes to North Korea, where we have no official presence on the ground.
We hope you will join us at this turning point for nuclear policy by donating whatever you can, today.
With you by our side, we have a much greater chance of keeping the world safe from nuclear weapons and other threats over the next four years.
Note: Philip added two corrections to some important figures: 80-100k deaths should be 25-80k casualties; 700k South Korean troops should be 495k.
Watch @PhilipYun_PF discuss the North Korea nuclear crisis at @World_Affairs Council.
