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Analysis: Another New Tack on North Korea

Council on Foreign Relations

Updated: April 25, 2008
Author: Jayshree Bajoria

After months of deadlock and countless rounds of diplomacy, experts say the United States has reached a new compromise (FT) with the North Korean regime on denuclearization. Washington denies this lets North Korea off the hook on its secret uranium-enrichment program and its proliferation of nuclear technology to Syria. But the shift brought criticism raining down upon the Bush administration from quarters once very much in step with U.S. policy toward the nuclear-armed Stalinist dictatorship. In particular, John R. Bolton, who shaped administration thinking on the issue for much of the president’s tenure, contended in the Wall Street Journal recently that Washington had capitulated to Pyongyang. Bolton ended his missive with this line: “President Bush, you are no Ronald Reagan.”

The criticism grew louder after U.S. intelligence officials briefed members of Congress Thursday that North Korea had helped Syria (LAT) build a nuclear reactor which was destroyed by an Israeli air strike last year. Pyongyang failed to meet its January 1, 2008, deadline to fully disclose its nuclear activities as called for under the Six-Party Talks. But now, experts and media reports suggest, under the new deal North Korea will only have to declare its past plutonium production. In exchange, the United States will take North Korea off the list of state sponsors of terrorism and remove some of the sanctions imposed on the country under the Trading with the Enemy Act. A January 2008 Congressional Research Service report examines three possible policy options (PDF) for the Bush administration to proceed with North Korea’s removal from the terrorism list.

President Bush denied making concessions. Instead he argues that the United States, along with the other participants in the talks, will wait for Pyongyang to make a full verifiable declaration before they move to fulfill their obligations toward North Korea.

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

Copyright 2008 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.