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North
Korean
 orth
Korea announced its
withdrawal from the NPT on January 10, 2003, stating that its
withdrawal "will come into force automatically and immediately" the next
day. North Korea stated that it had suspended its 1993 withdrawal from
the treaty on the last day of the required 90-day notice period and thus
did not need to give a further notice to other NPT parties and the
Security Council as described in Article X of the treaty. Whether or not
the DPRK's view that its withdrawal from the NPT was effective in
January 2003, whether its withdrawal only became effective on April 10,
2003 (90 days after the January 10 announcement), or whether its
withdrawal should be recognized at all,
North Korea no longer considers itself bound to the treaty. North
Korea's withdrawal casts a shadow over the validity of the NPT regime,
and impacts the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast
Asia. North Korea
tested its first nuclear device on October 9, 2006, less than one
week after the October 3, 2006 “clarification statement” by the North
Korean Foreign Ministry declaring Pyongyang’s intention to conduct a
nuclear test. . In reaction, the UN Security Council placed sanctions on
North Korea,
Resolution 1718.
North Korea's withdrawal is significant, as this is
the first time that a state party has taken such action. However, there
exist differences of opinion among states parties over the legality of
North Korea's withdrawal procedures.
The states parties have
yet to collectively respond to this unprecedented challenge. At the 2005
Review Conference, for the first time in NPT history, the treaty had to
deal with the issue of withdrawal. Since the Conference failed to adopt
any substantive issues in its final document, it was not able to address
how to respond to the withdrawal collectively. Nevertheless, the
conference offered an opportunity to explore new ways to strengthen the
Treaty including the matter of preventing further
withdrawals.
North Korea now joins the small group of states
(India, Pakistan, and Israel) with nuclear weapons outside the treaty.
North Korea's withdrawal could trigger further defections from the
treaty, and in particular, could set a precedent for other states,
including Iran. In addition, North Korea's action could provoke other
states in the region to pursue nuclear weapons of their own. An
additional concern is the potential for North Korea to sell
weapons-grade fissile material or nuclear weapons themselves to other
states and non-state actors, including terrorist groups.
Of more concern is that North Korea continues to be in
non-compliance with its IAEA safeguards obligations and refused to open
all its nuclear facilities for IAEA inspection even before its
withdrawal from the treaty. Since 1993, the IAEA has been unable to
fully implement its comprehensive safeguards agreement with North Korea.
In October 2002, during a meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
James Kelly, North Korean officials acknowledged the country had a
secret development program to produce enriched uranium. In December
2002, North Korea disrupted IAEA safeguards measures at the Yongbyon
facilities, and on December 31, 2002, all IAEA inspectors were expelled.
In February 2003, the
IAEA Board of Governors decided to refer the North Korean issue to
the UN Security Council. In April 2003, the UN Security Council
expressed its "concern" over the situation in North Korea and said it
will keep following developments. The Security Council has, however,
not taken further action. The IAEA continues to call for North Korea to
promptly accept comprehensive IAEA safeguards and cooperation with the
IAEA in their full and effective implementation.
Efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully and
diplomatically have been made through the Six-Party talks since August
2003 involving the Republic of Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the
United States. While the Six-Party Talks process often hit a roadblock,
progress has been made to some extent. After boycotting the fourth
round of the talks in the fall of 2004, in February 2005,
North Korea announced that it was indefinitely suspending its
participation in the talks. In the same statement, North Korea
openly declared that it possesses nuclear weapons.
In July 2005, North Korea announced its intentions to rejoin the Six
Party Talks. After nearly two years of impasse, a “statement
of principles” was agreed on by all parties at the conclusion of the
fourth round of talks (September 13th – 19th). The statement included a
commitment by North Korea to “abandon all nuclear weapons” and “to
return, at an early date, to the NPT.” However, North Korea insisted
that the dismantlement of its nuclear program be contingent upon
receiving a light water reactor, which caused another stalemate.
On February 13, 2007, in the most successful round of
the Six-Party Talks (in part due to a shift in U.S. policy), North Korea
agreed to an “Action
Plan” based on the 2005 “Statement of Principles.” Under the deal
North Korea would shut down its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon within 60
days in exchange for 50,000 tons of heavy-fuel aid. Separate bilateral
talks with the United States and Japan would also begin in order to
normalize relations. In the Action Plan’s second phase, if North Korea
dismantles its nuclear weapons program completely, another 950,000 tons
of heavy fuel oil will be delivered along with other humanitarian,
economic, and energy aid. On March 19, 2007, assets on Banco Delta Asia
were lifted and on July 14, North Korea re-admitted IAEA inspectors. The
inspectors verified that indeed the Yongbyon nuclear facility had been
shut down. On October 3, 2007, at the sixth round of the Six-Party
Talks, parties reached an
agreement to disable
North Korea’s nuclear program before the end of the year. The deal
will establish a schedule for resolving remaining issues related to
shutting down North Korea’s
nuclear facilities.
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