Countries all over the world have a great threat facing them today especially the United States of America. North Korea is a communist country that will soon have the power to launch a nuclear warhead and hit just about anywhere in the US. The US and the rest of the world is facing a very difficult situation, with no easy right answer. Because of events in North Korean and US’s history with each other and other volatile nations, along with the state of these two nations today, it makes the decision even more difficult. For this reason and others that will be stated in this essay North Korea should be able to keep their nuclear weapons.
North Korea has been using nuclear energy since 1986 when they had a nuclear reactor in Yanbyon. Although North Korea did not announce that they had nuclear weapons until 2005 where two years before they left the nonproliferation treaty this stated that North Korea was to halt the increase of nuclear weapons. Since then North Korea has been testing missiles and nuclear weapons. In 2006, they conducted an underground nuclear blast, 2012 they tested a missile over the sea but quickly disintegrated. In 2013 the U.N. added sanctions against North Korea, prohibiting the export of some military supplies, luxury goods and imposed sanctions on money transfers and aimed to shut North Korea out of the international financial system. While in 2015 they successfully test an underwater submarine missile and in March 2016 after the fourth nuclear test and then the detonation of a hydrogen bomb, the U.N. further strengthened sanctions. It banned the export of gold, vanadium, titanium, and rare earth metals to hinder their economy. Most recently they tested a missile that experts say have the possibility of reaching New York.
Although relations between the U.S.A and North Korea are stressed right now back when Clinton was president they were working towards normalcy diplomatically. In early 1994 North Korea threated to use nuclear rods and turn them into nuclear weapons, president Clinton had the chance to attack them but instead tried to talk to them. This lead to the agreed framework deal which said, “to freeze and ultimately dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for the full normalization of political and economic relations with the United States”. For agreeing to this they received fuel oil and assistance in construction of the light water reactor. Their main reason for agreeing to this was because of the loss of the Soviet Union, one of their closest allies, and China developing better relations with South Korea. So, they believed having a better relationship with the US would help them. This deal was working until a new president was elected 2001 began the decline of relations between the US and North Korea, the Bush Administration took a hard line against North Korea. They believed North Korea was not holding up their end of the agreed framework, believing they were enriching uranium, but was never actually proved. The US cut off oil shipments to North Korea which they took harshly kicking all IAEA inspectors out of the country and withdrawing from the nonproliferation treaty. In 2006 the first nuclear bomb was tested it was very weak but the U.N. set very swift sanctions telling them to stop and destroy all nuclear weapons in the works. North Korea stated that the test was because of US sanction and pressure these testing slowly continued until 2009 when it looked like peaceful talks may happen again when suddenly Kim Jong-Ill died. His succesor Kim Jung-Un has increased the pace and rate of nuclear and missile testing drastically with increasingly more dangerous weapons. One of the most recent ones tested was 250 kilotons which can be compared to the one dropped on Hiroshima which was 15 kilotons.
Looking at this situation from the North Korean perspective there are some viable reason for wanting an arsenal of nuclear weapons. These weapons can be used as a deterrence against other countries attacking or invading them. If other countries know they have weapons of mass destruction nobody will want to attack them because of fear of retaliation with these weapons. Along with this North Korea is evening up the playing field there are eight other countries with nuclear weapons, so by North Korea having these weapons they are not seen a just another communist, possibly hostile state. They are seen as not a world leader but a country with power which makes them be taken seriously by other countries. A more recent reason why North Korea could see these bombs as possibly being needed is Presidents Trumps about North Korea for instance Trump tweeted. “If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer”. Insinuating that the country of North Korea may not be around for too much longer. Recently after that tweet during his address to the U.N., Trump said “The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”
There are many ideas on how to handle this situation from the rest of the world perspective and some of them are happening right now such as sanctions. Stating that until the nuclear weapons are destroyed or at least the creation of them will be halted and this can be proven certain economic trading will be restricted. Which have not been too effective since they are still creating nuclear weapons and have no signs of slowing down. There are other more drastic ways of handling this situation being looked at as well like forcibly denuclearizing them, “the USA would begin a buildup of forces that, by most estimates, would take at least two months. Japan and South Korea would begin intensive civil-defense programs to protect their populations and minimize civilian casualties” (WSP pg1). North Korea has the power to kill up to 800,000 people with one nuclear attack on Seoul, South Korea as soon as the US attacked them (Telo, pg1). Making the thought of attacking them too high of a cost. As North Korea has already shown that they have the power to make missiles that can cross the oceans and have nuclear bombs. I think the USA has to find a way to live North Korea having these weapons. I believe in the past they had a chance to prevent the creation of these weapons but too many broken down talks and not trusting North Korea to keep the agreements that were made, has lead North Korea to believe that these nuclear weapons were necessary if their country was to survive. Now that North Korea has these nuclear weapons I don’t believe there is any chance of them giving up the weapons. I still think there is little chance of an attack from North Korea because as soon as they attacked the US or ally, the US would completely decimate them.
A treaty with North Korea may be the option the world should be looking towards although much of the world doesn’t agree with what North Korea is doing I don’t see a viable option for making them give up their nuclear weapons as was previously stated. A treaty would go a long way as there are many things North Korea need that it does not have that could greatly increase the lives of the citizens in the country. The average person struggles in North Korea with millions being malnourished, leaving a whole generation with stunted growth and a higher chance of becoming ill. In the 1990s much of North Koreas healthcare collapsed leaving the only working hospitals restricted to Pyongyang. In other parts of the country citizens become ill with very curable diseases that become deadly because of lack of care available (LINK pg1). Along with this there are roaming blackouts because of the lack of energy available. This all combines to make a weakening state that could fall apart from the inside if they do not get the help they need. A treaty that would loosen sanctions or that would get rid of them all together would go a great length to strengthen relationships and bring good change into the country of North Korea. On the North Korean end the halt of all missile testing and creation of more nuclear weapons, with the agreement that a 3rd party inspector may come in a verify this.
Living with the reality of North Korea having nuclear weapons is not an easy pill to swallow, but it is something the world must do if they don’t want things to escalate from hurtful tweets being thrown back an forth. North Korea has had a long journey to get to where they are today and the US been a part of this. There is a very sensitive situation going on in North Korea with many different perspectives and ways of handling this. While no answer can be proved correct until after the situation is handled, the most viable answer is to allow North Korea to keep the weapons they already have.
Originally published 15.10.2019