Word: pyongyang
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...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 that Bush's team took it means "they have...
...could bring about a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. Under the pact, North Korea agreed to shut down within 60 days its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, where it's believed to have produced the fissile material needed to make the six to 10 nuclear weapons Kim is estimated to possess. Pyongyang has also promised to allow international inspectors into the country to verify compliance. In return, the North is to receive an emergency shipment of fuel oil from the U.S., China, Russia and South Korea. If all that goes well, Pyongyang would receive more humanitarian aid, and the U.S. and North...
...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...
...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...
...Bolton's criticisms. The Administration argues that the latest deal is much stronger than the one negotiated in '94 because it effectively isolates Kim. The Clinton deal was bilateral, whereas this time all North Korea's neighbors, including its closest ally, China, are co-signers, which should force Pyongyang to keep its promises and continue to bargain in good faith. The Chinese were infuriated by Kim's October nuclear blast--President Hu Jintao had publicly warned against such a test--and have ratcheted up the pressure accordingly. This "deal has muscle," argues Michael Green, a former Bush adviser on East...