Demise of U.S. and North Korean Relations

North Korea, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has been seriously toying with the idea of nuclear weapons for more than two decades. One of the most important events in the relationship between North Korea and the U.S. occurred in 2002, with the implosion of the Agreed Framework the Clinton Administration had set up in 1994.

In 2002, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly visited Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea. Kelly informed the North Koreans that the U.S. was aware of their plan to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU), a main component in a nuclear weapon. When North Korea apparently admitted they had this program, as the U.S. State Department has said, the U.S. suspended its oil shipments to the area. Part of the Agreed Framework said the U.S. would give oil to North Korea for fuel, provided North Korea froze its nuclear power plants, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative Web site.

According to North Korean officials, the U.S. hadn't kept the promises it made within Agreed Framework in providing light-water reactors for power generation, said Won-Ho Park, University of Floridaa political science assistantprofessor at the University professor.of Florida. Park said he felt the Clinton Administration made more promises than they expected to keep, as they saw the collapse of North Korea to be imminent within the next few years. Both sides blame the other for the collapse of the Agreed Framework.

Once the U.S. suspended oil shipments, North Korea lifted the freeze on its nuclear power plants and withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty in January 2003. They claimed they lifted the freeze to create electricity, not nuclear weapons. North Korea first announced it had nuclear weapons in February 2005 and claimed to have detonated its first nuclear weapon Oct. 9, 2006.

North Korea's Intentions

Other countries have questioned whether North Korea’s purpose for having nuclear weapons is for malicious intent or simply for defense.

Dr. Richard Nolan, a political science professor at the University of Florida, said that while many think Kim Jong Il and North Korea have done things that are “outside the avenue of normal state behavior,” having nuclear weapons may not be part of that.

“I think quite frankly their intentions are rational,” he said. “They’re trying to deter.”

Nolan said this desire comes especially after North Korea has been placed on President Bush’s “axis of evil,” along with Iraq and Iran, as mentioned in his State of the Union Address on JanuaryJan. 29, 2002. After seeing what the U.S. has done in Iraq, a country without any weapons of mass destruction, North Korea may want the protection and the defense of nuclear weapons, Nolan said.

More than the nuclear weapons themselves, the U.S. fears North Korea will sell the technology to a terrorist organization, Nolan said.

“It’s about the technology itself falling into the wrong hands,” he said. “There’s been a fear since the fall of the Soviet Union that the technology is out there.”

Audio

University of Florida assistant
professor Won-Ho Park talks
about North Korea’s changing
relationship with the U.S.






University of Florida assistant
professor Won-Ho Park talks
about the significance of North
Korea’s nuclear test date.