Nuclear-Weapons Program of North Korea
North Korea conduced an underground nuclear explosive test on October 16, 2006. The estimated yield of the test was less than one kiloton.
In a _____ discussion with the United States and China in Beijing on April 24, 2003, North Korean officials admitted for the first time that they possessed nuclear weapons. Furthermore, North Korean official claim to have reprocessed spent fuel rods and have threatened to begin exporting nuclear materials unless the United States agrees to one-on-one talks with North Korea. Tensions between the United States and North Korea have been running especially high since, in early October of 2002, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly informed North Korean officials that the United States was aware that North Korea denied this, but later confirmed the variety of the US claim. In confirming that they had an active nuclear weapons program, they also declared the Agreed Framework nullified.
The Agreed Framework signed by the United States and North Korea on October 21, 1994 in Geneva agreed that:
- North Korea would freeze its existing nuclear program and agree to enhanced International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.
- Both sides would cooperate to replace the DPRK’s graphic moderated reactors for related facilites with light-water (LWR) power plants.
- Both countries would move toward full normalization of political and economic relations.
- Both sides will work together for peace and security on a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
- And that both sides would work to strengthen the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.
Prior to the establishment of the Agreed Framwork, intelligence sources believed that North Korea could have extracted plutonium from their reactors for use in nuclear weapons; perhaps enough for one or two nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, it has remained unclear whether North Korea had actually produced nuclear weapons due to difficulties in developing detonation devices.
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