Will we soon find ourselves at war with North Korea? “Frontline” (8 p.m., check local listings) examines the paranoid, oppressive regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and his determination to produce nuclear weapons.

“Frontline” goes back to 1994 to trace the roots of the current nuclear showdown. After North Korea announced that it would begin reprocessing enough fuel from a nuclear reactor to create six weapons, the Clinton administration went into crisis mode. In an interview, former Defense Secretary William Perry remembers how close the U.S. came to military action. Instead, Clinton’s administration negotiated a complicated deal. The North Koreans agreed to shut down their reactor in exchange for oil and the construction of two light water reactors. With little political incentive to live up to the agreement, the U.S. was slow to deliver the promised oil and build the promised reactors. While many fault Clinton’s North Korean policy, others criticize President Bush for turning a simmering dispute into a boiling crisis.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Murder finds a dentist at an art-house cinema on “CSI” (8 p.m., CBS).
• Jack meets Karen’s rival (Minnie Driver) on “Will & Grace” (8 p.m., NBC).
• Scheduled on “The Pulse” (8 p.m., Fox): war news.
• A teacher vanishes after departing her classroom on “Without a Trace” (9 p.m., CBS).
• Pratt’s resuscitation prolongs a patient’s life and anguish on “ER” (9 p.m., NBC).
• Scheduled on “Primetime” (9 p.m., ABC): inside a battlefield hospital; a May-December murder mystery.
• “True Life: I’m Shipping Out” (9 p.m., MTV) profiles young soldiers as they prepare for war.

Series notes

Eviction number nine on “Survivor” (7 p.m., CBS) … Joey and Phoebe give Ross and Rachel a little encouragement on “Friends” (7 p.m., NBC) … Bloopers and outtakes on a one-hour “That ’70s Special” (7 p.m., Fox) … An hour of improvisation on “Whose Line is It Anyway” (7 p.m., ABC) … Wrestling on “WWE SmackDown!” (7 p.m., UPN) … On back-to-back episodes of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” (WB), a question of trust (7 p.m.), Sabrina’s scoop may ruin a musician’s reputation (7:30 p.m.).

Carla and Turk have second thoughts on “Scrubs” (7:30 p.m., NBC).

Two subjects undergo an “Extreme Makeover” (8 p.m., ABC).