North Korea Says it Will Give Up Nuclear Weapons
North Korea has agreed to a provisional plan to give up its nuclear weapons program and existing weapons materials. In exchange for total denuclearization, North Korea will receive "food, fuel and other aid from the United States, China, South Korea and Russia," according to the New York Times. North Korea is on the U.S. State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism, in large part because it produces WMDs. There is significant international concern that North Korea would be willing to sell nuclear weapons or materials to terrorists.
Despite the standing ovation the accord received when it was read aloud in China earlier this week, there is only guarded optimism in the international community that the agreement will be fulfilled. For a variety of reasons, North Korea seems unlikely to relinquish its weapons program, or to reveal to inspectors all of its enriched uranium or plutonium. For one thing, its nuclear capabilities are one of its few bargaining chips for obtaining necessary resources:
Jin Linbo, a North Korean watcher at China's Institute for International Studies, said North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan was quoted last December as telling South Korean and Japanese reporters, "Do you believe we developed and sustained our nuclear weapons programs for so long just to give them up?"
Other governments have developed nuclear weapons for political popularity, diplomacy or security, Jin said. "But North Korea is not like other countries. They need it for food, they need it for fuel, for clothing to wear" and cannot afford to bargain it away cheaply, he said. "So I'm very pessimistic."
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