Word: agreement
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Ultimately, it was America’s greater flexibility and willingness to make an interim deal, as well as China’s cooperation, that made the present agreement possible. Indeed, China’s role cannot be overemphasized. As perhaps the only nation in the world capable of bringing North Korea to its knees without resorting to military force, China’s willingness to implement limited sanctions after North Korea’s nuclear test was crucial...
...what impact will the agreement have? At the very least, it provides the prospect of real improvement on the status quo, which is a North Korea bent on producing more weapons. If the Yongbyon reactor is shut down, the North's ability to make more nukes--or worse, peddle nuclear material to third parties--will be crippled. Although Pyongyang is a long way from giving up its nuclear weapons entirely, the diplomatic path toward that goal is more visible than it has been in years. This is likely the best deal the U.S. could get right now, and the fact...
...your hopes up just yet. The Beijing agreement calls for Pyongyang "to discuss all of its nuclear programs." To the U.S. and its partners, that means the North must eventually dismantle both its plutonium-based weapons program and a suspected uranium-enrichment program. But Pyongyang, after first admitting to the uranium program when confronted about it by the U.S. in 2002, has since denied its existence--and may well have hidden it away deep inside a mountain somewhere in the countryside, beyond the reach of international inspectors. If Kim refuses to come clean about the uranium-enrichment program, the deal...
...agreement is also silent on the subject of the nuclear weapons the North already has. The existence of that arsenal was confirmed last October, when the North said it had tested a nuclear weapon (albeit with mixed success). The fact that Kim's stockpile is not mentioned in the latest agreement "is probably not an oversight," says Gary Samore, who was head of the counterproliferation program at the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) under Clinton. "That's an indication that the North Koreans are not going to be willing to give up their existing capabilities...
...Bush's critics see it, that's where the latest deal falls short. Former Clinton Administration officials say the agreement is a close facsimile of the Agreed Framework signed by Washington and Pyongyang in 1994. That deal called for the North to halt nuclear-weapons development in return for two light-water nuclear power plants, from which it is difficult to generate the fissile material for bombs. Clinton's presidency ended before the power plants could be completed, and the projects today are derelict--evidence, in Pyongyang's eyes, of Washington's bad faith. But those who defend the Agreed...