October 9, 2006: A blast was detected by nearby countries. The blast had struck fear into the world. Later that day, President Kim Jong Il of North Korea claimed to have tested a nuclear weapon. North Korea had now reached Bush's priority list. We must deal with Kim Jong Il and dispose of the nuclear material.
Since April 24, 2003, North Korea openly declared that they have manufactured nuclear weapons to “protect” themselves from the United States. Once their power was declared, they withdrew from disarmament talks. No one could convince the North to dispose of their nuclear plants and missiles.
North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, is the one responsible for its Nuclear power and production of nuclear weapons. There are as many as 22 nuclear facilities in 18 locations in North Korea. Most facilities are located in Yongbyon. Most weapons are produced in these facilities located in Yongbyon, although, as stated by globalsecurity.org, “[By April 18, 2004,] North Korea had shut down the reactor.” Reasons for the reactor's closing may be because North Korea wants to reprocess spent fuel rods into weapon material and reprocess spent plutonium into weapons fuel. Once these rods and plutonium were reprocessed, they reopened the reactor. This fuel and newly processed weapon material has greatly increased Kim Jong Il's power. These actions have made him into a greater threat.
During these last few years, Kim Jong Il has made many statements and speeches about North Korea's power. He has been trying to induce fear by threatening the world. Primarily, he targets the United States with these “threats,” which is what his speeches are meant to be.
On Monday, October 9, 2006, Kim Jong Il announced he had carried out his first nuclear bomb test. Confirmed by U.S. Intelligence, by detection of a seismic event, and Russia, saying they witnessed the test. As stated by CNN, “[The blast] was equivalent to about 500 metric tons of TNT, which a senior U.S. intelligence community official said was unusually small for a nuclear blast.” President George W. Bush made this comment as quoted by BBC News: "The United States condemns this provocative act; The transfer of nuclear weapons would be considered a grave threat to the United States; Today's claim by North Korea serves only to raise tensions.”
Since the blast, all talks and attempts to persuade Kim Jong Il to dismantle his weapons and shut down all nuclear facilities have failed. Kim Jong Il refuses to dismantle his weapons. Several meetings revolving around dismantling these weapons have not moved the North Korean leader. A few talks have been made between United States negotiators and lesser power North Korean government leaders. One talk has made much progress. CNN tell us that Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea, met with Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan. Hill claims that the talks outlined denuclearization in return for $300 million in energy and financial aid. Hill and the United States remains optimistic about the denuclearization of North Korea.
Although these steps are being taken with the United States, North Korea is performing heinous acts against other countries. North Korea is currently abducting Japanese citizens. Reasons for these abductions are due to Japan's aggression towards North Korea between 1910 and 1945. They colonized the Korean Peninsula. Talks to resolve this issue are continuing after a one year break.
Talks in Washington D.C. are showing signs of North Korea moving closer to nuclear disarmament. February 13, 2007, the United States, China, Russia, Japan, and North and South Korea, the United States agreed to take 30 days to resolve its issues with a Macao bank as part of the nuclear disarmament plan in North Korea. March 14, 2007, Christopher Hill arrived in Beijing promising an early resolution to the issue.
The Macao bank had cut its ties with North Korea after being charged with laundering money and distributing counterfeit money in North Korea. This money was used for trading purposes. The United States' claims caused the bank to freeze all North Korean accounts. Now, North Korea refused to commence with negotiations until their accounts were unfrozen.
On March 22, 2007, talks revolving around North Korea's nuclear program ended with no progress towards disarmament of North Korea. Negotiations had lasted for four days, ended by the frozen bank accounts. A quote from Kim Kye-gwan states, “Our delegation went home because there was no progress on the promised transfer of the funds.” The money was to be transferred to the bank of China. The bank needs time to process the money and overcome legal issues too before transferring North Korea's funds to the bank of China. Christopher Hill stated that the money transfer should be overcome quickly to continue negotiations with North Korea.
I believe that the situation in North Korea will be resolved. I have hopes that Christopher Hill and other negotiators will succeed in the disarmament of North Korea. Although, Kim Jong Il is a stubborn man, he will have to give in to disarmament eventually. He is in a very negotiable position in which he could achieve and gain a higher power.
In my opinion, Kim Jong Il will give into disarmament in exchange for the offers made by the negotiating countries. Most offers involve giving financial aid and oil in exchange for reactors and other nuclear facilities to be shut down. So far, Kim has excepted the deal to close the Yongbyon reactor, but will not shut it down until their money from the frozen accounts has been received. Progress is being made to achieve disarmament and the progress we've made gives me confidence that disarmament of North Korea will be successful.
