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North Korea, 10/06:
Key Lecture Points:
Overview:
• In December 2002, after months of escalating diplomatic tension with the US, North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which it had signed in 1985. Since that point, the US and the world as a whole has been working on ways to confront/convince North Korea to give up its nuclear aspirations, while within its borders, North Korea apparently is moving forward with weaponized nukes.
• Recently (September, 2005) North Korea participated in the fourth round so-called “six party talks” about the issue of North Korean sovereignty and its nuclear aspirations. The six parties (North Korea, South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Russia) met in Beijing, with the Chinese playing the role of go-betweens for the US and the North Koreans.
• On September 19, the six parties signed a “draft accord” wherein N. Korea agreed to give up its nuclear weapons program and rejoin the NPT in exchange for US assurances of respect for N. Korean sovereignty, as well as promises of economic and energy aid from the parties. This may be an important step toward averting a crisis on the Korean peninsula.
• The agreement does have some crucial sticking points, not the least of which is an assurance that North Korea will be provided with a light water nuclear reactor for the ostensible purpose of electricity production. The agreement says (in purposefully vague terms) that such a reactor will be provided “at an appropriate time”.
• On September 20 (less than a day after the accord was signed), North Korean leaders announced that they would not dismantle their weapons program until the US provided the nuclear reactor.
For More Information:
• US State Department briefing on North Korea: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2792.htm
• BBC coverage of Six Party talks, including text of “draft accord”: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4261284.stm
• UN International Atomic Energy Agency Coverage of North Korea http://www.iaea.or.at/NewsCenter/Focus/IaeaDprk/index.shtml
Books For Further Reading:
• Quinones, C. Kenneth. Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding North Korea. Alpha Books, 2004.
Description: In this accessible guide, readers will find unmatched expert analysis of the volatile situation in North Korea, along with answers to frequently asked questions. Covered topics include:
North Korea's geography, people, industry, political systems, and government; the history of the country, from myths to kingdoms, including Japan's colonial rule and its effects; the dictator, Kim Jong Il, and his father, Kim Il Sung; the possibility of reunification with South Korea; and options for international involvement.
Click here to order.
• McCormack, Gavan. Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe. Nation Books, 2004.
Description: North Korea seems impenetrable to outsiders, a bizarre, Stalinist sideshow and relic guerrilla state that defies explanation. For Washington, North Korea is a fully paid-up member of George Bush's "axis of evil," involved in a dangerous game of nuclear brinksmanship since last October. In this timely book, McCormack shows how decisive the founding myths and national identity forged through Korea's armed resistance to a brutal Japanese colonialism are, and how hardened North Korea has become over half a century of Cold War.
Click here to order.
• Lankov, Andrei. From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea 1945-1960. Rutgers University Press, 2002.
Description: To understand how North Korea has survived as the world's last Stalinist regime despite international isolation -- and at enormous human costs to its people -- one must look at how its political system was created. The country's foundations were laid in the late 1940s and 1950s as a result of interaction between the Soviet Stalinist model, imposed from outside, and local traditions. Andrei Lankov traces the formation of the North Korean state and the early years of Kim Il Sung's rule, when the future "Great Leader" and his entourage were consolidating their power base. Surveying the situation in North Korea after 1945, Lankov explores the internal composition of the ruling elite, the role of the Soviets, and the uneasy relations between various political groups. He also focuses on how in 1956 Kim Il Sung defeated the only known attempt to oust him and thereby established absolute personal rule beyond either Soviet or Chinese control. The book is based on previously secret Soviet material from Russian archives, as well as interviews with Russian and Korean participants.
Click here to order.
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