... have too much symbolic and practical significance for Pyongyang today. We should remind that further amendments to the DPRK Constitution, promulgated in late September 2023, enshrined the country’s strategy aimed at intensifying the development of nuclear weapons to ensure “survival rights” and “war deterrence” amid North Korea’s escalating confrontation with the United States and its allies in Northeast Asia.
It is also clear that any new bilateral talks with Washington or Seoul will not change Pyongyang’s position, for all the importance North Korea attaches ...
... important and statutory instrument for any nation.
However, there was certain logic in passing that bill by the Northerners. First, the preceding legal acts had been rather brief, failing to disclose important provisions and specifics in respect to nuclear weapons. At major Track II diplomacy conferences as well as in other situations, we often heard the following remarks addressed to North Korean representatives: if you claim to be a nuclear state, then at least present your nuclear doctrine to the global community, which all members of the “nuclear five” have developed and which would define the nature, objectives, functions,...
... position on North Korea. But the new conditions demand that the negotiations pursue a completely different goal. That is, the new negotiations (like the many years of U.S.–Soviet negotiations on arms reduction) should aim to clarify the status of North Korea’s existing nuclear weapons and what will happen to them. Guarantees need to be obtained from the North Korean side that the further development of these weapons will cease and the production programme downsized. In return, North Korea would receive asymmetrical ...
... the policy of sanctions. The US retains a powerful tool for inflicting economic damage on the target country with fewer opportunities to use it for achieving diplomatic goals.
Second, the breakdown of the JCPOA undermines non-proliferation efforts. North Korea is a case in point proving that while failing to remove sanctions, possessing nuclear weapons provides some leverage in negotiations. At the same time, giving up nuclear weapons leads to the re-imposition of sanctions under new pretexts.
Third, every new round of sanctions forces target countries to adapt and find new ways to carry ...
... confrontation between the two Koreas, with the U.S. siding with South Korea for over six decades.
The problems on the Korean Peninsula have two main components. Today, the greatest emphasis is placed on North Korea’s nuclear crisis stemming from the North Korean leadership implementing their nuclear missile program in violation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Yet there is another component, the inter-Korean crisis, with the Korean nation being split into two separate states for over 70 years. These crises are inter-related, but their mutual influence is not straightforward. Should Pyongyang ...
... be reversed. I am sure many people wouldn’t want that. That would not be in Russian, US, or DPRK interests. And that is why Washington should make use of more creative and innovative approaches to the Korean Peninsula.
Q:
What exactly is meant by North Korean denuclearization? Are we talking only of eliminating the nuclear weapons stockpiles? Or is the West also determined to have all the nuclear reactors dismantled, including those built during the Soviet period?
A:
I believe the idea of North Korean unilateral denuclearization is utopian. It sets out the wrong ...
... architecture (the New START Treaty is now the last one standing), Donald Trump comes across far more hawkish on Russia than Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats.
In a practical sense, scrapping the INF Treaty gives Washington free rein to threaten North Korea while also pressuring China, the country Trump deliberately alluded to when announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty.
If the negotiations on the denuclearization of North Korea fail—and it’s hard to imagine that Pyongyang will completely ...
... agreement fell apart in 2002. In 2003, North Korea
announced
it was withdrawing from the NPT. Since then, North Korea has been actively developing and testing nuclear weapons, despite international efforts such as the failed Six Party Talks. In 2009, North Korea was confirmed to have nuclear weapons by the IAEA. In 2017, North Korea
tested two missiles
that could possibly reach United States territory.
Mediator
Considering the urgency of the situation, and the potential for apocalyptic escalation, it is vital that negotiation for ...
... to do with realities that emerged over recent years.
The
Soviet Union was the first to recognize the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(DPRK) on October 12
th
, 1948. Following the Korean war (1950–1953) where the Soviets had been supporting North Korea, in 1961 the two states signed a bilateral agreement on “friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance.”
The USSR was instrumental in the development of the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program in the 1970s
. Then-leader of the DPRK Kim Il Sung visited the USSR twice – in 1984 and 1986 – to sign additional treaties on cooperation and trade. The Soviet Union has been North Korea’s biggest trade partner with a
trade ...
On the night of November 29, 2017, the DPRK tested the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile. According to Pentagon, the missile flew about 1000 km and fell into the Sea of Japan. The North Korean military emphasizes that the Hwasong-15 is capable to carry an "extremely heavy nuclear warhead" and reach any point in the mainland of the United States. The DPRK leader Kim Jong-un after the successful test of the new Hwasong-15 ...
