As mentioned in an earlier blog (North Korea after Kim), discussions were taking place amongst North Korea and other countries including the US, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea to make a deal regarding North Korea’s status and nuclear efforts. While all the countries had initially agreed on the North Korean proposal, Japan now rejects the proposal, citing that it “seems bad,” so Korea’s black-list status still remains (though maybe not for the Bush administration- AP:NewsOK, 10/11/08). (Demetri Sevastopulo, 10/10/08)
North Korea had complied with the US’s demands to test, verify, and inspect North Korean nuclear facilities. These much-delayed agreements stopped in 2002 when the “Bush administration accused North Korea of circumventing the agreement by pursuing a second path to a bomb, based on enriching uranium. The White House said at the time that it would require full verification that any uranium program had been halted, though later the intelligence community expressed some doubts about how far the program had gotten.” (Helene Cooper, 10/11/08) Then in 2006, North Korea conducted a nuclear test, “[increasing] urgency among the international community to reach a disarmament deal with the Stalinist nation” and accelerating the US’s pace at proposing an agreement. (Demetri Sevastopulo, 10/10/08)
Personally, I think the Bush administration seemed too assertive in coming to a close with North Korea on agreements. I agree with the many who believe North Korea came out on top in these negotiations even though the agreement did not go through, and that possibly, the US may have been too lenient. Particularly because North Korea is a communist state who responded to US postponement of an agreement by “reassembling equipment at the Yongbyon reactor, leading to the decision on Thursday to bar the IAEA inspectors from monitoring activities at the plant.” (For the US to respond by giving a positive reward in moving forward towards peace is a dangerous move because it gives North Korea the upper hand and appearance that their immature response in reassembling the reactor was permissible. Especially because with the current agreement, “North Korea has a veto over everything beyond Yongbyon… a clear victory for North Korea.” (Helene Cooper, 10/11/08)
Do you think that this agreement should have gone through and that North Korea should not be considered a black-listed state? Or are you happy to see that Japan rejected the agreement and is looking for North Korea to make more concessions?
