The crisis sparked by North Korea's admission of a secret nuclear weapons programme is the subject of a special half-hour report by CNN senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy. The show airs on 14 December at 7 pm with repeats on 15 December at 9 am and 4 pm.

Korea: The Nuclear Dilemma traces the origins of the crisis and the political fallout in the US, Japan and South Korea. The programme will be based on extensive interviews and reporting in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul; as well as insights from aid workers; scholars and political figures with experience inside North Korea. It also examines the reasons for Pyongyang's nuclear gambit; the difficult policy choices confronting the US and its Asian allies; and the prospects for heightened confrontation on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea has been labeled as being part of the "Axis of Evil" by the Bush administration. This status has been augmented by the latest seizure of a North Korean ship carrying SCUD missiles near Yemen and Pyongyang's announcement that it was unfreezing nuclear facilities shut down in 1994. Korea: The Nuclear Dilemma would be a timely examination of a complex issue in one of the most volatile regions of the world.