Word: pyongyang
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...When dealing with North Korea, "making sure" is never a bad idea. Going back to 1994, when the Clinton Administration cajoled Pyongyang into promising to abandon its nuclear-weapons program, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has repeatedly made and then reneged on such accords. But for the Bush Administration, whose officials had once speculated openly about the possibility of forcing Kim from power by cutting off his regime from aid and trade, the agreement signed on Tuesday represented a victory-albeit a small one. Now, the immediate question it faces is simple: Have the U.S. and its four negotiating...
...Bush's critics see it, that's where the latest disarmament 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, which are difficult to use to generate 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...
...preliminary nature of the deal is clear enough: North Korea agreed to shut down 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 within 60 days. In return, the North is to receive an emergency shipment of 50,000 tons of fuel oil from the U.S., China, Russia and South Korea. The oil is desperately needed to run electric power plants in the impoverished land...
...agreement holds out the possibility of an array of unspecified economic and humanitarian assistance flowing to the North, as well as the prospect that the U.S. will remove the country from its list of terrorist-sponsoring states, end its trade sanctions and eventually enter talks to normalize relations. Meanwhile, Pyongyang agreed "to discuss all of its nuclear programs," including any stockpiles of plutonium already gleaned from the Yongbyon reactor. At her Feb. 13 press conference, Rice emphasized the phrase "all nuclear programs." She says the U.S. and its partners want the North to dismantle both its plutonium-based weapons program...
...agreement is also silent-ominously so, critics believe-on the subject of the North's existing nuclear weapons. The question of whether Pyongyang has them is no longer a matter of conjecture: last October the North tested a nuclear weapon (albeit with mixed success), dramatically raising the stakes in the standoff with the U.S. and its allies. The fact that Kim's existing nuclear 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...