Now that North Korea has shut down its main nuclear reactor, the United States and other countries need to keep the pressure on until the reclusive communist regime goes the next step and dismantles it.
The decision to shut down the Yongbyon reactor can be counted as a fragile diplomatic victory for President Bush. Experts believe the reactor generated enough plutonium to build several nuclear bombs, one of which it tested last fall. The shutdown was part of a February agreement with North Korea’s four neighbors and the United States. It demonstrates the importance of diplomacy and the need to continue those multi-party negotiations.
The more difficult diplomacy will begin today when six-nation talks resume in Beijing. They are aimed at persuading North Korea to start disabling the reactor and to give up all of its nuclear materials, which experts suspect North Korea will refuse to do. Negotiators also want North Korea to shut down three other nearby facilities, and another bigger reactor under construction.
The U.S. and Korea’s neighboring countries should press for an accounting of the country’s nuclear materials, facilities and any possible covert enrichment programs. It also is critical that North Korea not help any other country or terrorist group build nuclear weapons using the plutonium extracted from the reactor.
It’s a tall order, but an important one. The breakdown in talks in 2002 led to North Korea resuming its a uranium enrichment program and to stockpiling enough plutonium to build several nuclear weapons. It also test-fired several weapons in recent years, fortunately with little success.
A similar process of nuclear disarmament in North Korea began in the late 1990s under a 1994 deal brokered by the Clinton administration. North Korea shut down its reactor but didn’t dismantle it.
While the agreement was imperfect to begin with, the Bush administration made matters worse by refusing to continue the diplomacy started by Clinton. When Bush referred to North Korea as part of an “axis of evil,” the country quickly played the role as leader Kim Jong-Il restarted its reactor and its uranium enrichment program.
In return for shutting down its Yongbyon reactor, a processing site for weapons-grade plutonium, the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia offered North Korea 50,000 metric tons of badly needed heavy fuel oil, which South Korea began delivering last Saturday. An additional 950,000 tons, or equivalent economic assistance, is promised when it declares and disables all of its nuclear plants. The deal is valued at around $90 million.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the U.S. also will begin deliberations to remove North Korea from a list of terror-sponsoring states. North Korea has despised the label and wants it lifted along with economic sanctions before it moves forward on nuclear disarmament. It also wants normal relations with the United States.
Hill is to be credited for his persistence in helping to bring North Korea this far. For the future, the United States needs to continue to coordinate a strong diplomatic strategy with China and other countries. Despite the small progress now underway, it will be important to remember that compromise takes time and patience.
