North Korea is “The longest running failure in the history of American espionage.”
That’s the assessment of Donald P. Gregg, arguably, the man who knows more about North Korea than any living American.
Gregg, 89, is a retired State Department and CIA veteran, a North Asia specialist, and a recipient of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. He says the absence of direct dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea has to change. “We can’t deal with them if we don’t understand them, and we won’t understand them if we aren’t talking to each other,” he says.