Joseph Nye

North Korea Nukes: Program Under Way?

When North Korea signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1985, it accepted the obligation to negotiate a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. Such an agreement would allow international inspectors access to North Korea’s nuclear plants to assure that all activities were for peaceful purposes. Six years have now passed without North Korea living up to its obligations to sign such an agreement.After several years of protracted negotiations, North Korean Foreign Minister Kim Yong Nam announced that the final touches on the text have been completed. But then Pyongyang invented another reason for delay.

(Christian Science Monitor, November 25, 1991)