North Korea agrees to give up nukes

[Drake Tungsten]

Damn, this is unexpected...

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Nearly three years after ordering U.N. nuclear inspectors out of the country, North Korea Monday agreed to give up its entire nuclear program, including weapons, a joint statement from six-party nuclear arms talks in Beijing said.

"This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing's envoy, in a report from The Associated Press.

In exchange, the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have "stated their willingness" to provide energy assistance to North Korea, as well as promote economic cooperation.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning at an early date to the treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT) and to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards," the statement said.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/09/19/korea.north.talks/index.html

This is, of course, excellent news. Hopefully the North Koreans will truly abandon their nuclear program this time around. I guess only time will tell whether this problem has truly been solved, but there's definitely reason to be hopeful now.

[DaShi]

Oh good. Another agreement for them to break.

[BeBMan]

Good news for now. I hope this becomes reality.

[Drake Tungsten]

Oh good. Another agreement for them to break.

They should be more likely to abide by this agreement if the Chinese are holding their feet to the fire; that's the wisdom of involving all the players in the region in muliparty talks. I am concerned about how interested China really is in holding North Korea to task, however. China would lose a valuable source of leverage in dealings with America if North Korea were ever to completely move away from a nuclear weapons program. The mere threat of North Korea restarting a program might be enough to maintain this advantage for China, though, so such considerations probably won't weaken attempts to disarm NK in the short term.

[BeBMan]

So what did the US offer in return?

Edit: I mean in detail

[Mr. Harley]

For China it's a great deal. Any energy they get from the US means it's not coming from China. "Here, Mister, have good deal for you." :

[Seeker]

Errr, we ARE all aware of the NK tactic of saying one thing and then going right ahead with the complete opposite. Or making a committment, and then pulling out at the last moment. Or making a tenuous, fictional committment, loudly deny that you're not honouring it for YEARS, then suddenly admit that 'of course' you dishonoured it.....etc etc etc

they play us so well.

[DinoDoc]

Unless we have somesort of verifiable way of forcing them to truely abandon the nuke program rather than just hide it like they did last time, this deal is nothing more than toilet paper.

[Drake Tungsten]

Unless we have somesort of verifiable way of forcing them to truely abandon the nuke program rather than just hide it like they did last time

What do you have in mind?

[GePap]

1. This is a good development, thought only a first step. The question is what kind of non-aggression statement the NK might demand of the US for the deal, as well as the particulars of the economic aide.

2. China does not benefit from an aggressive NK in any way, so the Chinese have every reason to try to get this to work out. Both China and SK thought have stability as their number one aim, NOT a non-nuclear NK since a nuclear NK is not the same threat to either of them that it is to Japan and the US.

[Mr. Harley]

Let Japan, China, and South Korea deal with the problem. I am sick and tired of US taxpayers footing the bill when it is in their direct interest to do this. China has a negative interest in a Pacific Rim nuke race. If they thought that was a possibility, I strongly suspect they would intervene. Now they get to play both sides, and end up looking like the good guys to much of the world - look, mommy, they're brokering a deal what good guys they must be. What fools these American administrations be. MAD worked with Stalin and Khruschev, it will work with NK too.

[Zulu Elephant]

DETAILS OF DEAL
N Korea to abandon all nuclear weapons and programmes
N Korea to return to nuclear treaty and UN monitoring
US states it has no intention of attacking N Korea
N Korea says it has right to "peaceful uses of nuclear energy"
N Korea's demand for light water reactor to be discussed at "appropriate time"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4259128.stm

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by shawnmmcc
Let Japan, China, and South Korea deal with the problem. I am sick and tired of US taxpayers footing the bill when it is in their direct interest to do this.

Yeah, life isn't easy as a superpower ....

[Mr. Harley]

Except I for one do not wish the US to be a Superpower, and the majority of Americans are to f*cking cheap to want to pay the bills that come with the status, instead dumping them on future generations - like my little girl. Imbeciles. We'll end up like Great Britian in the 1950's and 1960's.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Zulu Elephant
N Korea to return to nuclear treaty and UN monitoring

We had that to begin with. What makes that different now?