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Nuclear Deadline for North Korea Passes

Nuclear Deadline for North Korea Passes

Jan-1-08 11:18 am

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Over the past year progress on multilateral negotiations detailing North Korea's nuclear weapons program has witnessed significant steps forward. This progress, however, was overshadowed yesterday by its inability to fulfill a more comprehensive explanation of its program, which may indicate either a return to previous tactics of Kim Jong-il, or a continued game of tit-for-tat between the the US and North Korea. Today's Financial Times is reporting that missing this deadline, however, will most likely not severely hurt prospects for fulfillment of the multilateral negotiation and agreements:

North Korea missed an end of year deadline on Tuesday to declare details of its nuclear programmes, casting a shadow over diplomatic efforts to fulfill a denuclearisation pact on schedule.

Under a multinational deal reached in February, North Korea agreed that by the end of 2007 it would disable and then dismantle its main Yongbyon reactor, and present a list of all its nuclear programmes in return for economic aid and political concessions.

However, experts said the deal would not be jeorpardised by the delay. The US, South Korea, and Japan urged Pyongyang to fulfill its end of the bargain as soon as possible.

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Experts said the reason for the delay appeared to be related to a dispute over Pyongyang's alleged uranium enrichment activities. Washington suspects that North Korea runs an extensive programme of uranium enrichment, apart from its plutonium-based nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, which was shut down in July and whose disablement work is under way.

Pyongyang has denied the uranium enrichment activities. South Korea’s foreign minister said last week that more consultations were needed on the uranium issue.

Some experts said the delay might have been caused, in part, by North Korea’s dissatisfaction with the delivery of energy aid and a lack of progress in the US plan to take Pyongyang off a list of terror-sponsoring states.

While several of the countries involved in the multilateral talks may have their own questions surrounding North Korea's intentions, what remains to be central to the issue is US involvement and continued cooperation between the US and North Korea, which is hoped to be furthered by the nature of a multilateral strategy, rather than a bilateral one.

Posted by: Brendan P. Geary

Tags: nuclear weapons North Korea multilateral negotiations

About the editor:

Anthony Clark Arend

Professor

Commentary and analysis at the intersection of international law and politics.

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» Learn more about the M.A. in International Law and Government at Georgetown University.

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