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Analysis: Pyongyang's Halting Steps on Denuclearization

Council on Foreign Relations

Updated: September 19, 2007
Prepared by: Jayshree Bajoria

The long journey from paper agreement to denuclearization in North Korea has begun with some promising first steps. But there are numerous fresh signs of the challenges ahead. For instance, even as U.S. officials this month were expressing satisfaction about North Korea’s shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities, disturbing new allegations surfaced that North Korea was helping Syria (WashPost) build a nuclear facility. North Korean and Syrian officials dismissed the charges but U.S. officials said they are closely watching both countries (AP).

Still, the U.S. State Department expressed the wish to push forward soon with the multiparty talks aimed at eliminating (Bloomberg) North Korea’s nuclear program. U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley told a recent CFR meeting North Korea's denuclearization "seems to be going well" and that the United States needs to keep up the pressure so that a new administration does not have to deal with that process. The six-nation agreement in February promised Pyongyang energy aid and diplomatic and security guarantees if it abandons its nuclear arsenal. Until the recent reports of North Korean nuclear proliferation, the denuclearization process had gained some momentum. After the tour of the Yongbyon facilities, Washington and Beijing decided to move toward fulfilling commitments for each country to reward North Korea with fifty thousand tons of heavy fuel oil. The shipments are expected to head to North Korea after it agrees to declare and disable its nuclear program at the next round of the Six-Party Talks, to be attended by envoys from the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia, and Japan. Pyongyang received its first shipment of fuel aid from South Korea in July, soon after it closed down Yongbyon.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.