Thursday, November 21, 2002
THE DPRK HAS CONFIRMED THE OBVIOUS: The 1994 Agreed Framework is dead.
With Iraq still front and center, the Bush Administration doesn't want a war on the Korean peninsula. The DPRK is counting on this and hoping that they can extract at least a non-aggression treaty from the Americans. Will they get it? My guess is not without some significant concessions on the North Korean side.
Invoking a decision last week by countries including the United States to cut off fuel supplies, North Korea said today that a 1994 agreement intended to prevent it from producing nuclear weapons had collapsed, and accused Washington of destroying it.
The North Korean statement comes just weeks after the Bush administration confronted the impoverished communist country with intelligence evidence showing that Pyongyang had already secretly violated the so-called agreed framework by importing equipment needed to produce highly-enriched uranium. After an overnight delay, North Korean officials reportedly confirmed their secret program to visiting American diplomats, but said the weapons program was justified by continuing American threats. Pyongyang pursued that logic again today, blaming the outside world for the breakdown.
With Iraq still front and center, the Bush Administration doesn't want a war on the Korean peninsula. The DPRK is counting on this and hoping that they can extract at least a non-aggression treaty from the Americans. Will they get it? My guess is not without some significant concessions on the North Korean side.
