Word: nuclearism
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...that a deal has been struck with north korea on its nuclear weapons program, both the South Korean and U.S. governments have embarked on a hard sell. They claim that this new accord trumps the 1994 Agreed Framework negotiated by the Clinton Administration, and that it signals the beginning of a complete denuclearization of North Korea...
...Bush Administration criticized the Clinton team for leaving us: freezing and monitoring the Yongbyon facilities without ensuring their complete dismantlement. In fact, we are actually worse off than when the Agreed Framework was signed, as North Korea has used the past five years of wrangling to expand its nuclear arsenal. Nonetheless, a deal is a deal, and better than no deal at all. Never mind that this week's agreement is silent on Pyongyang's uranium enrichment, an issue that precipitated the current crisis. Nor that it says nothing concrete about the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear facilities, materials...
...Democratic Party's victory in the November congressional elections. Perhaps the White House simply needed a success story, even if it turns out to be one more of perception than fact. Whatever the reason, Washington's change of mind is welcome. It's better to stop North Korea's nuclear activities, even at a price, than to allow it to keep churning out plutonium and nuclear weapons. For its part, North Korea has been able to take advantage of Washington's eagerness to engage. All it had to do was give the U.S. government a reason to claim success. Fortunately...
...Will North Korea eventually give up those facilities as the U.S. and others insist? To answer that, we need to ask why the North developed and secured nuclear weapons, over several decades, at such a high cost and risk. There are a number of reasons. First, nuclear status is a political trophy for Kim Jong Il. From senior party members down to young children, North Koreans have boasted to recent visitors that Kim's great feat of testing a nuclear bomb last October has enabled their country to stand as an equal with the big powers. Second, the nuclear program...
...Given what North Korea sees as compelling motives to possess nuclear weapons, it's highly unlikely it will succumb to a Libya-like solution and agree to completely rid itself of nuclear equipment and material, as Muammar Gaddafi's regime did in 2003. The best we can hope for, perhaps, is convincing Pyongyang not to produce any additional nuclear weapons. In 60 days' time, we'll know if even this modest goal can be reached. Now that the previous objective of achieving complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement looks increasingly unrealistic, the question boils down to this: Should the rest...