A behind-the-scenes look into why U.S. efforts to contain North Korea’s nuclear capabilities have not worked “A riveting, blow-by-blow account. . . . Wit’s personal negotiation experience and mastery of policy detail make this book invaluable.”—Elizabeth Economy, Foreign Affairs For almost four decades, the United States has tried to stop North Korea’s attempts to build nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them. Joel S. Wit, a former State Department official, takes readers to the front lines of nuclear negotiations and to fierce policy debates and secret diplomatic gambits, recounting how perilously close the United States and North Korea have come, on various occasions, to nuclear confrontation. Based on more than three hundred interviews with officials in Washington, Beijing, and Seoul, as well as with the author’s contacts in Pyongyang, this book chronicles how six American presidents have approached the problem of North Korea. Wit points to Barack Obama and Donald Trump as