Muhammad Haris Khan
Research Assistant CGSS
Part-II
International Community
Response and Sanctions
The international community has condemned the nuclearization of North Korea and has imposed financial and economic sanctions to pressurize the regime to take the path of denuclearization. Imposing sanctions is one of the best strategies, the International community and world powers frequently use to punish a particular country for the violation of International law and standards. The development of nuclear arsenals and the missile system of North Korea possess a serious threat to regional and global stability. In order to denuclearize DPRK, the UN Security Council and World Powers, Particularly the USA, have imposed a great deal of economic and financial sanctions.
UN Security Council
The UN Security Council has until now passed a dozen resolutions against North Korea mainly in response to its frequent nuclear tests in the last decades. Through these resolutions, UNSC has imposed heavy sanctions on the regime. The sanctions included a ban on arms and military equipment; luxury goods; agricultural and food products; imports of oil, petroleum and natural gas; freeze the assets of individuals involved in the nuclear program; prohibits other countries to cooperate with the regime in scientific and technical fields and many more.
United States
The world powers have also imposed unilateral sanctions on the North Korean Regime. The most apparent among them is the United States. The US has declared North Korea ‘the state sponsor of terrorism’. In order to punish DPRK and impede its nuclear and missile developments, the US has unilaterally imposed economic and financial sanctions alongside the UN-imposed sanctions. In 2016, the US Congress passed its first statute imposing sanctions on anyone involved in the proliferation of nuclear weapons. In 2017, the US passed another piece of legislation ‘Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act’ to impose further sanctions on North Korea and punish those foreign governments that assist the regime.
European Union
The European Union has imposed sanctions on North Korea since 2006. It has banned EU investment in DPRK. Apart from this, it has prohibited the exports of oil and luxury products to North Korea. It has also imposed sanctions on those individuals and governments that help Pyongyang in developing their nuclear weapons and missile program.
South Korea
Assessing the nuclear threat in the region and seeking a path toward a peaceful co-existence, South Korea mainly has pursued the conciliatory policy in dealing with North Korea. Although some leaders have taken up a hard-line, many South Korean leaders, including the incumbent leader Moon Jae-in, has adopted a more conciliatory approach toward Pyongyang. From 1991 to 2015, South Korea has provided $9 billion to North Korea in aid. In 2019 due to food shortages, Seoul pledges another $7 million in aid to Pyongyang. Although the use of soft power has improved the relations between North and South Korea, it has reduced impacts of international sanctions on North Korea due to which it became difficult for the international community to achieve the goal of denuclearizing Pyongyang by imposing sanctions.
The incumbent leader of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, has met the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un four times until now in order to improve the bilateral relations alongside supporting international sanctions and enhancing military defense ties with the US. They have opened a hotline, approved humanitarian aid, and restored family reunions and working to build an inter-Korean railway network.
Japan
Assessing the threat of North Korean nuclear and missile tests, Japan has imposed sanctions since 2006. Tokyo has imposed new sanctions in 2019, freezing specific North Korean and Chinese assets, prohibited bilateral trade with Pyongyang and banned the entry of its citizens and ships into Japanese territory.
Negotiations
Various series of negotiations have taken place among North Korea and regional and world powers to put an end to the nuclear and missile program of North Korea. Although the regime has started work to build nuclear weapons for military purposes in the 1980s, it has known to the international community in the 1990s. Since then, the dialogue process started to denuclearize North Korea. The most important among them are:
Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
In order to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, North and South Korea signed a Joint Declaration on December 1991. Under this agreement, the two Koreas agreed on a framework which prohibited them to “test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons” or to “possess nuclear reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities.” The agreement failed due to ill-implementation of the agreed points. The violation of the agreement from both sides put end to this effort of denuclearization.
US-North Korea Agreed Framework
In 1994, the US and North Korea signed an agreement named US-North Korea Agreed Framework. According to this agreement, the DPRK would freeze its nuclear weapons in exchange for two light-water reactors for civilian purposes along with other forms of assistance in the energy sector.
While some points of the agreement have been implemented, the framework failed due to the frequent violations of the North Korean regime. Despite the agreement, Pyongyang pursued the development of weapons of mass destruction. Denying the visit of an inspection team of IAEA, North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and the deal of Agreed Framework failed subsequently.
Six-Party Talks
After quitting the NPT, a multilateral negotiation process started in August 2003 launched by US, China, Japan, Russia and North, and South Korea. In 2005, in a joint statement, north vowed to freeze its nuclear weapons and return to the NPT in exchange for security assurance and assistance in the energy sector of the regime. Due to this statement, Pyongyang, in 2007, disabled its plutonium reactor at Yongbyon and allowed the IAEA inspectors to visit the nuclear sites. The regime received fuel oil in exchange. Despite the negotiated settlement, North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in 2009 which frustrated the member countries. Due to rising tensions, North Korea left the Six-Party Talks in 2009 and declared that it would be no longer bound by the negotiated agreements.
US-North Korea Negotiations
After assuming office in 2017, the relations went to its lowest level between the US and North Korea. The increased nuclear and missile testing activities of Pyongyang and resultant hostile behavior of Washington take the situation to the brink of war. The diplomatic measures of South Korea watered down the hostilities and agreed both the countries for table talks. In May 2018, Trump and Kim met in Singapore to negotiate the bilateral relations and denuclearization of North Korea, but the efforts failed. The talks resumed in June after North Korea took steps to dismantle its nuclear test site and release US prisoners. Both the leaders agreed to improve the bilateral relations, denuclearize the Korean peninsula and suspend US-South Korea military exercises.
In February 2019, the two leaders met in Vietnam for a second summit. The summit remained unproductive as both the parties disagreed over sanctions relief and denuclearization. The Summit left without any such progress but the talks did not declare void and both the leaders vowed to continue negotiations.
Recently, in the previous month of June, the two leaders met at the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea. The joint statement released after the meeting pledged to improve the bilateral relations. But, denuclearization was not mentioned in the statement, which vague the situation and future deal about the denuclearization of North Korea.
Conclusion
Despite the restrictions from international regimes and world powers, many countries have acquired nuclear weapons after World War Two. One of them is North Korea, whom nuclear weapons and missile program have developed over time despite tough economic and financial sanctions and international isolation. The nuclear capabilities of Pyongyang possess a grave threat to the regional security and stability of Northeast Asia. Thus, in order to denuclearize the regime, many international efforts were made. These efforts range from the hard economic sanctions and isolation to multilateral talks and negotiations. The world powers, particularly the US, have also made their efforts to denuclearize North Korea. But all these efforts proved to be unproductive until now. The aggressive behavior of North Korea for the survival of its regime can lead to a nuclear conflict in the region. Apart from this, the possible regime collapse in the DPRK may have severe consequences for regional and global security as nuclear weapons can be acquired by non-state actors. The possible proliferation of nuclear technology to other state and non-state actors by North Korea due to its miserable economic condition is another leaning sword on the head of the international community. Assessing these threats, the world powers and the international community has to work hard to denuclearize Pyongyang. The use of hard power can further deteriorate the security situation. The problem needs to solve politically and diplomatically to deter any threat that can emanate from the hostile relations in the region.
