North Korea Archive

This post by Sam Roggeveen originally appeared on The Interpreter. The big diplomatic news of the day is that North Korea has handed over a partial accounting of its nuclear program, and in return the US will remove North Korea from its sponsors of terrorism list and ease sanctions. Those who support this move call it ‘huge news…and…a giant step in putting US-North Korea relations on a new and more constructive track.’ But it’s worth reading some of the critics too, in order to get a picture of just how much is missing from the deal and how much work […]

Foreign Policy’s Blake Hounshell has a point. Make that five points.

TOKYO — A flurry of activity over the past two weeks suggests the six-party talks aimed at ridding North Korea of its nuclear program might finally be back on track. Under an agreement reached last February, North Korea was supposed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and a host of diplomatic benefits such as being dropped from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. As part of this agreement, North Korea was meant to offer a full declaration of its nuclear activities by the end of last year, but failed to do so. However, the U.S. […]

A delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit Syria next week to assess recent American claims that the installation attacked by Israeli warplanes last year was indeed a nuclear reactor in the final stages of construction. Two months ago, Michael Hayden, the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and other senior American intelligence analysts broke months of official silence about the September 2007 Israeli air strikes against a target located near the Syrian town of Al Kibar. Their intensive briefings for members of Congress, congressional staff, and, on background, the media, confirmed earlier suspicions that the […]

If you’re having trouble keeping things straight on the North Korean nuclear negotiation front, head over to Arms Control Wonk and read this post by Jeffrey Lewis. Essentially, the agreement reached through the Six Party talks is hitting the same potential sticking point — North Korea’s disputed May 1992 declaration of plutonium reprocessing — that led to the collapse of the Agreed Framework in 2002 and North Korea’s subsequent nuclear weapons capacity. The post gets a little deep in the weeds, but that’s why we love the ACW.