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North Korea and Nuclear Weapons

“The solution to the nuclear crisis requires solving North Korea’s security dilemma.
- David C. Kang, Dartmouth College

Recent Developments

23 April 2008: South Korea's foreign minister said the "last work" on securing North Korea's declaration of its nuclear activities is under way and six-nation negotiations could resume next month.

22 April 2008: A a team of US experts met North Korea's top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-Gwan in Pyongyang to discuss the declaration of the North's nuclear activities. The group is led by Sung Kim, director of Korean Affairs office at the State Department. It is due to return 24 April to South Korea. Yonhap news agency said the US team would present a detailed list of data and other materials which North Korea needs to present for verification of its plutonium stockpile. A government source explained, "North Korea is expected to submit a declaration before the end of this month if the US team's activity goes well."

14 April 2008: The Inter Press Service News Agency ran an interesting article on the dissonance between media headlines about six-party talks and the reality of military trends in Northeast Asia: see "Talking Peace, Preparing for War" by John Feffer.

13 April 2008: South Korean President Lee Myung Bak urged North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, and said he will cooperate with other involved nations in persuading North Korea to give up nuclear weapons and added that he will keep the "door open" for dialogue with the North. Meanwhile, Sohn Hak-kyu, leader of the liberal United Democratic Party (South Korea's main opposition party) vowed to hold back the right-leaning government's tougher stance toward North Korea by strengthening the liberal legislative bloc. He warned that the government's conservative approach may damage the momentum toward achieving a peaceful diplomatic solution to North Korea's nuclear weapons program and also cause a setback in South Korea's overall development.

12 April 2008: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied the North Korean nuclear arms issue is resolved, saying the US needs to verify any North Korean declaration of its nuclear activity. During a news conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Washington, she said, "We are not yet at a point where we can make a judgment as to whether or not the North Koreans have met their obligations and we are therefore not at a point at which the United States can make a judgment as to whether or not it's time to exercise our obligations." She emphasized that the process involved six nations, not just the US.

On the same day, Radio Free Asia cited "multiple diplomatic sources" in Washington that said a secret agreement was reached between the US and North Korea, under which the US "will make a declaration of North Korea's alleged uranium enrichment program and nuclear cooperation with Syria on behalf of Pyongyang." In return, Radio Free Asia reported, the agreement calls for North Korea to "acknowledge" US concern over the two issues and not to "challenge the facts". The radio station said North Korea agreed to make a complete and correct declaration of its nuclear weapons program "in the coming weeks".

10 April 2008: US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief US envoy to the six-party talks, said negotiators have reached an understanding on how to move ahead with deadlocked six-nation disarmament efforts. He said that a meeting with his North Korean counterpart in Singapore this week provided a "way forward," and indicated that coming weeks will be crucial to the plan's success, without elaborating. Hill said a meeting of nuclear envoys from the six nations could take place in Beijing in the next few weeks if all sides "can fulfill their obligations." When he was asked if a six-nation meeting would coincide with the US dropping the North from the terrorism blacklist, Hill said,"When we do the six-party meeting, we will need to be in a position to complete all" elements of the nuclear agreement.

9 April 2008: North Korea's Foreign Ministry said that its negotiators had reached a "consensus" with US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill in Singapore on US political concessions in return for the nuclear declaration.

8 April 2008: At a plenary meeting of the United Nations Disarmament Commission's 2008 session, a representative of North Korea's mission to the UN delivered a statement in which he criticized recent US-South Korean joint military excercises in South Korea, arguing that the exercises were "a nuclear war rehearsal to attack the DPRK by force of arms." He also asserted that "violent remarks to preemptively strike the nuclear base of the DPRK were openly made by the south Korean high ranking military official."

1 April 2008: US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief US envoy to the six-party talks, said strained inter-Korean relations won't affect efforts to resume the six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program. While in Seoul, Hill cautioned reporters against "overreacting" to the building tension between North and South Korea. Hill's comments followed North Korea's condemnation of South Korea's new president, Lee Myung-bak, who reportedly wants to link inter-Korean ties to progress at the multilateral nuclear talks. Commentary published in North Korea's main daily Rodong Sinmun warned that Seoul's tougher policies on the North could lead to "catastrophic consequences". It said, "The Lee regime will be held fully accountable for the irrevocable catastrophic consequences to be entailed by the freezing of the inter-Korean relations and the disturbance of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula due to its sycophancy towards the U.S. and its moves for confrontation with the North."

26 March 2008: Christopher Hill, the chief US envoy to the six-party talks, warned Tuesday that internal politics in North Korea could interfere with the nuclear deal. He said Pyongyang had informed Washington on a number of occasions that it wanted to reach the deal before President George W. Bush left office in January 2009, but indicated, "North Korea is a country that has a very vertically oriented governing structure to be sure ... And so I think it is fair to say that there are people in North Korea who really are not with the program here, really rather continue to be producing this plutonium for whatever reason."

14 March 2008: US assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill met with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, for eight hours of negotiations. He said that other members of the six-party talks - South Korea, China, Russia and Japan - were briefed and that discussions would continue over the weekend.Sung Kim, chief of the Korean affairs office, stayed behind in case of a possible follow-up with the North Koreans, but it wasn't yet decided whether there would be more meetings. Hill told reporters that the talks in Geneva were probably the most substantive that the United States has had with North Korea since problems developed in December over disarming Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program: "We certainly are further along in this consultation than we were when I arrived this morning," Hill said after meetings withKim Kye-gwan. "There has been progress."

13 March 2008: The top nuclear negotiators from the United States and North Korea met in Geneva to resume talks over the stalled aid-for-disarmament deal. Before going to the meeting, US negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters, "I think we should be a little flexible on format, but with the understanding that flexibility on format doesn't mean flexibility on getting a complete and correct declaration." On 12 March, the Washington Post reported there are "signs that the two sides, with the help of China, have structured a diplomatic framework that could resolve an impasse that has blocked a deal to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs."

10 March 2008: US Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said North Korea must send a "clear signal" to fully declare its nuclear programmes in order to get itself removed from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. He argued, "They have not yet shown us even the elements of what will constitute a complete and concrete declaration," saying the US couldn't remove the country from its terrorist list "until we see a clear signal from the North Koreans that they are going to do their part with regards to the declaration."

3 March 2008: North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that US-South Korean war games that started on the weekend "show that the United States continues to pursue its hostile policy of squeezing our republic to death," and warned that they would "put the brakes on the denuclearisation process on the Korean peninsula." The New York Times reported that the criticism "dampened hopes for warmer ties between the United States and North Korea," though US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said he still hopes for resumption of six-party talks: "If we can resolve these matters in the next few weeks, which I think is possible, I think we could depending on the views of the Chinese host, get together for a 6-party meeting to plan the next phase."

For news from September 2005 - February 2008, please see our Archived News.

Government and United Nations Resources

Judy Aita, "North Korea Talks on Track, U.S. Negotiator Says," Press Release, US Department of State, 7 March 2007.

Joint Statement from the Third Session of the Fifth Round of the Six-Party Talks, 13 February 2007.

Office of the Spokesman, "Initial Actions To Implement Six-Party Joint Statement," US Department of State, Washington, DC, 13 February 2007.

Statement by President Bush, White House Press Office, 13 February 2007.

"North Korea To Be Key Topic on Bush China Visit, Aide Says," US State Department, 19 November 2005.

China, DPRK, Japan, ROK, Russia, US, "Joint Statement of the Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks," Beijing, 19 September 2005.

Sharon A. Squassoni, “North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons: How Soon an Arsenal?” CRS Report for Congress RS21391 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Services, The Library of Congress, 1 August 2005)

IAEA Board of Governors, “Chairman’s Conclusion on Item 5 (b): Nuclear Verification,” Report by the Director General on the implementation of safeguards in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, 3 March 2005.

"Remarks With European Union President Jean Asselborn, European Union High Representative and Secretary General Javier Solana, and European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner," United States State Department Press Release, 10 February 2005.

KCNA News Agency, “N Korea’s statement in full,” BBC Online, 10 February 2005.

International Atomic Energy Agency – In Focus: IAEA and DPRK

Comprehensive IAEA Timeline of key events in the IAEA/DPRK Relationship (1977-2005)

IAEA Fact Sheet on DPRK Safeguards

Complete Text of the 1994 Agreement between the United States and North Korea

NGO and Think-Tank Resources

John Feffer, "Talking Peace, Preparing for War," Inter Press Service News Agency, 14 April 2008.

James Acton, "Can We Verify NORK Pu Declaration?," Arms Control Wonk, 7 December 2007.

Paul Kerr, "North Korea Talks Stalled by Banking Dispute," Arms Control Today, April 2007.

René Wadlow, "The Korean Peace Process: A Major Step Forward," Newropeans Magazine, 15 February 2007.

Paul Kerr, "No Progress at North Korea Talks," Arms Control Today, January/February 2007.

Paul Kerr, "Iran, North Korea Deepen Missile Cooperation," Arms Control Tolday, January/February 2007.

Dingli Shen, "Meaningfully engaging North Korea," Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 17 January 2007.

Center for Nonproliferation Studies, "North Korea Conducts Nuclear Test," Monterey Institute of International Studies, 10 October 2006.

Statement by Sam Nunn about the Apparent North Korean Nuclear Test, Nuclear Threat Initiative, 9 October 2006.

Global Security Newswire, "North Korean Crisis Still Stalled One Year Later," Nuclear Threat Initiative, 18 September 2006.

Paul Kerr, "News Analysis: North Korea: Are the Six-Party Nuclear Talks Dead?," Arms Control Today, September 2006.

Paul Kerr, "Security Council Condemns NK Missile Tests," Arms Control Today, September 2006.

David Krieger, “Why Nations Go Nuclear,” The Sunflower, Issue 103, December 2005.

Daryl G. Kimball, "'Getting Serious' About North Korea," Arms Control Today, Washington, DC: Arms Control Association, December 2005.

Paul Kerr, "North Korea Increasing Weapons Capabilities," Arms Control Today, Washington, DC: Arms Control Association, December 2005.

Hui Zhang, "Don't blame Beijing: In its own way, China is actually trying to influence North Korea," Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, vol. 61, no. 5, September/October 2005.

Seven Questions: Dealing with North Korea," Foreign Policy, July 2005.

Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen, “North Korea’s nuclear program, 2005,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. 61, No. 03, May/June 2005.

Bernard Gwertzman, “Korea Expert Pinkston: Six-Nation North Korea Talks 'Are Dead',” interview with Daniel A. Pinkston, Council on Foreign Relations, 9 May 2005.

Andrew F. Diamond and Daniel A. Pinkston, “Don’t Outsource North Korea Problem to China,” The Korea Herald, 25 April 2005.

Special Report on the North Korea Nuclear Weapons Statement, East Asia Nonproliferation Program (Monterey, CA: Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, 11 February 2005)

John Burroughs, "Nonproliferation Treaty Applies to Both North Korea and the United States," Nuclear Disarmament and Nonproliferation (New York: Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, Spring 2003)

Arms Control Association, North Korea Special Issue, Arms Control Today, May 2003.

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, "Compliance Assessment of North Korean and U.S. Obligations Under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and 1994 Agreed Framework," Nuclear Disarmament and Nonproliferation (New York: Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, 23 January 2003)

Norman D. Levin and Yong-Sup Han, Sunshine in Korea: The South Korean Debate over Policies Toward North Korea (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2002)

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Korea

Center for Nonproliferation Studies: North Korea Resources, East Asia Non-Proliferation Program, Comprehensive Timeline (1977-1999)

Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies: North Korea Special Collection

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR): Proliferation Issues

Federation of American Scientists (FAS): North Korean Nuclear Weapons Program

Institute for Science and International Security: North Korea

Library of Congress North Korea Profile

Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI): North Korea

Academic Resources

Jason Qian and Xiaohui (Anne) Wu,"Ending Mutually Assured Mistrust," The Korea Herald, 21 November 2005.

Xiaohui (Anne) Wu, "Bottling the Nuclear Genie," The Boston Globe, 9 October 2005.

John S. Park, "Inside Multilateralism: The Six-Party Talks," The Washington Quarterly, 28, no. 4, Autumn 2005.

Xiaohui (Anne) Wu, "Kim Jong-il Practicing the 'Art of War'," The Korea Herald, 14 August 2005.

David C. Kang, The Avoidable Crisis in North Korea (Philadelphia, PA: Foreign Policy Research Institute, Summer 2003)

Harvard University, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs: Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program

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