Paul Jay of
The Real News informs us that there was an agreement about the North
Korean nuclear program and that's towards the end of 1994 with the
Clinton administration. And, at least the main points, went like
this:
- North Korea would allow the IAEA to conduct routine inspections of nuclear facilities and remain a party to the nuclear proliferation treaty.
- US would lead the effort to build two light water nuclear reactors in North Korea to compensate for the loss of nuclear power. Target date to build those, 2003.
- Until they were built, the US would supply the North with 5,000 tons per year of heavy fuel and the US would suspend team-spirit military exercises with South Korea.
- The US would lift sanctions and remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, normalize the political relationship, which is still the subject to terms of the 1953 Korean War armistice.
- Both sides would provide formal assurances against the threat or use of nuclear weapons.
Former top
US official, Larry Wilkerson, explained that the deal had failed
because many from the US camp were undermining it.
As he said
among other things:
What
happened to the deal, is questionable even to the intelligence
community.
Why would I
say that North Koreans thought we weren't living up to it? [the deal]
Because we weren't. We shipped the heavy fuel at times that were not
exactly per the schedule. We shipped in quantities that might over a
year or 18 months have finally added up to what we said we'd give
them, but it never looked as if it was going to and it was never in
one shipment.
More
importantly, we 'dragged our heels' - as did the Europeans for a
certain amount of time because they were in it too - on funding what
was called 'The Korean Energy Development Organization', which was
the consortium set up for the agreement between the US and the DPRK,
but funded by others, like Japan, China and so forth. That money was
not forthcoming, so, by 2003 we had not even poured all of the
foundations for the two light water reactors.
If I'd been
the North Koreans at that time, I probably would have been cheating
too.
Steve
Bosworth who was appointed the first head of the consortium, actually
said about two weeks after the ink was dry on the agreement, 'it's
two weeks, the ink is not even dry yet and it's a dead agreement.'
And he knew
that the Republicans in the Congress and a few Democrats too, just as
with the Iran nuclear agreement today, there's blame on both sides of
the aisle, but the dominant blame is on my side, the Republican side,
who didn't want this agreement to be successful, and so they stood
right away to try to undermine it.
I think
there is an element in the Congress and an element in the country,
very wealthy element, that sees war to its benefit and needs these
threats. And so, is not about to let these threats to go away.
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