Foreign Relations of North Korea - Nuclear Program

Nuclear Program

North Korea's nuclear research program started with Soviet help in the 1960s, on condition that it joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In the 1980s an indigenous nuclear reactor development program started with a small experimental 5MWe gas cooled reactor in Yongbyon, with a 50MWe and 200MWe reactor to follow.

Concerns that North Korea had non-civilian nuclear ambitions were first raised in the late 1980s and almost resulted in their withdrawal from the NPT in 1994. However, the Agreed Framework and the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) temporarily resolved this crisis by having the US and several other countries agree that in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program, two light-water reactors (LWRs) would be provided with moves toward normalization of political and economic relations.

This agreement started to break down from 2001 because of slow progress on the KEDO light-water reactor project and the U.S. President George W. Bush Axis of Evil speech. North Korea announced it would withdraw from the NPT in 2003 after the US in late 2002 stopped Agreed Framework interim oil supplies to North Korea and accused North Korea of continuing its nuclear weapons program in contravention of the NPT. North Korea denied these allegations and insisted upon its right to produce nuclear energy for civilian purposes, as allowed by the NPT.

Following this withdrawal, North Korea's neighbours quickly sought a diplomatic solution to an escalating crisis. This resulted in a series of meetings held periodically in Beijing from 2003, known as the six-party talks. Its success has been questioned as US-NK bilateral relations have been the main aggravating factor. For example, North Korea declared on February 10, 2005 that it had nuclear weapons. On October 6, 2006, North Korea then announced it had successfully detonated a nuclear bomb. In response, the US froze North Korean bank assets. This resulted in a 13-month postponement of the six-party talks until mid-December 2006. The third (and last) phase of the fifth round of six-party talks have been held on 8 February 2007, and implementation of the agreement reached at the end of the round has been successful according to the requirements of steps to be taken by all six parties within 30 days, and within 60 days after the agreement, including normalization of US-North Korean and Japanese-Korean diplomatic ties, among other things. At the time of writing, the 30 days commitments have generally been met by all parties, with further talks due to be scheduled.

North Korea threatened to bolster its nuclear deterrent on March 3, 2008 in response to U.S.-South Korean war games, striking a discordant note after a week of cultural diplomacy that raised hopes of warmer ties between Washington and Pyongyang, with the 2008 New York Philharmonic visit to North Korea.

U.S. intelligence officials told members of the United States Congress on April 24, 2008 that North Korea was helping Syria to build a nuclear facility, which was bombed by Israeli planes in September 2007. It is less clear whether North Korea had provided or was about to provide essential fuel components to Syria.