North Korea
By: Mike • Essay • 671 Words • April 18, 2010 • 740 Views
North Korea
This article deals with the United States and its attempts to deal with the dangerous matters of North Korea. Some of the problems that were brought up in this article were North Korea’s plan to restart a plutonium based nuclear program at Yongbyon, North Korea’s plan to build a new highly enriched uranium (HEU) nuclear program, and the tension that emerged between the United States and South Korea. Even though many problems were occurring, there were some positive things that were happening at the time. The United States began negotiating with North Korea and South Korea about establishing railroad links, demining portions of the demilitarized zone, allowing athletes to compete in the Asian games, and allowing abductees to visit Japan.
The problems started occurring in January, when North Korea admits that they have been establishing a HEU program, ending any diplomatic progress. North Korea said that they would stop their program if we decided to make a pact with them. We denied this proposal because we did not want to reward them with bad behavior. In November, the United States declared that Korea broken the rules against the Agreed Framework.
There have been various theories on why North Korea had developed this highly enriched uranium program. One of the theories is that they were afraid that the United States was going to attack them, the same way we attacked Iraq. They figured that if we attacked Iraq, an isolated nation with a suspected nuclear program, then we could easily attack North Korea for the same reason. There also have been various reasons why North Korea revealed to us their HEU plan. One theory is that they wanted us to notice them. They did not want us to disengage and isolate from them.
At the beginning, our response to North Korea’s HEU and plutonium programs was very hostile and involved condemning them. Eventually, we took little baby steps to ease the tension. We also agreed to talk to them, but limited the things we could talk about with them. At the very time all of this chaos is happening, our relationship with the South Korea is reaching an all time low.
I think there are many things that the United States has to do in order to resolve the problems that are occurring and to prevent