Myung Hwan Yu, former South Korean minister of foreign affairs and trade, argued that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program must be shut down at yesterday’s lecture on “The North Korean Nuclear Program and Inter-Korean Relations.”

Yu, a 2010-11 visiting scholar in the Stanford Korean Studies Program, said a nuclear-armed North Korea is a major threat to its neighbors and to the United States. His talk focused on North Korea’s nuclear program, its upcoming leadership change and relations on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon in 2006 and conducted a second test in 2009. Yu said North Korean leadership maintains that the country needs nuclear weapons as a deterrent against foreign aggression.

But he noted that more should be done to ensure that North Korea is disarmed.

“It’s time for all concerned to take more aggressive and intrusive steps to shut down Pyongyang’s nuclear program,” Yu said. “It is a direct threat to most of East Asia as a whole and to the United States, as well.”

Yu highlighted recent aggression by North Korea in the past year, including last March when a torpedo struck a South Korean naval ship. Forty-six personnel were killed in the attack, which Yu attributed to North Korea. Last November, North Korea also shelled South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island, killing two soldiers and two civilians.

“Such reckless brinksmanship will not change South Korea’s policy toward the North and will further isolate North Korea from the international community,” Yu said.

According to Yu, it is entirely up to the North Korean leadership to decide whether or not it wants a better relationship with South Korea.

“North Korea is at a crossroad,” Yu said. “If it continues to keep the door closed and develops nuclear weapons, there will be no outside help, which North Korea badly needs to feed its people.

“The starving citizens will no longer follow their leader, as nuclear weapons cannot feed them.”

Last Monday, Reuters reported that a third nuclear test is likely. According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, tunnels are being dug near the site where North Korea conducted its two prior tests.

When asked about the test, Yu said the international community should do more to discourage it, including imposing further economic sanctions.

Yu said there would likely be a leadership change in North Korea next year. Kim Jong-un, son of the current North Korean President Kim Jong-il, is widely expected to become the country’s next ruler.

Yu doubted North Korea would see an uprising akin to those that have happened in the Middle East and North Africa.

“We cannot compare North Korea with North African countries or other countries,” Yu said. “It’s very unique. I don’t think we can expect to see a public revolt against the regime in North Korea.”

Among the students who attended the event, at least one said he was unmoved.

“To be honest, the issue has been done to death,” said Desmond Lim ’14. “[The talk] wasn’t revolutionary in terms of its perspective.”

But other students left the lecture with the view that North Korea’s neighbors should do more to stymie its nuclear ambitions.

“I feel that more emphasis should be on further actions,” said Joshua Wong ’14.

Lim said that with the unpredictability of the North Korean leadership, he expects more instability.

“I can’t be optimistic, at least in the short term,” Lim said.