The experiences of history prove that it is impracticable to rely on America-Part II

North Korea

When looking quickly at the conduct of international pressure, which the so-called (the international community) tried to impose on the states and countries seeking to acquire nuclear power, we clearly find that the United States after the September 11 events in 2001, has worked aggressively to take advantage of the atmosphere of sympathy, (which was created and promoted by it), after that incident to tighten the international pressures and sanctions imposed on a number of countries and states, including Iran, North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.

The U.S. aggression against Afghanistan, the threat of George W. Bush to launch an attack on other countries, and classifying the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with North Korea and Iraq, as the “axis of evil”, pushed other countries as Libya, for example, to compromise and retreat quickly from its positions, upon which it insisted previously. The same goes for North Korea, which found a way to ease its own international pressures and sanctions that are being imposed and practiced against it.

In 2001, the U.S. launched a military attack on Afghanistan, and then it returned in 2003 to launch another attack on Iraq. In the period between these two years, America declared Iraq as part of the axis of evil, as it also worked on tightening the international pressure on it.

In 2003, the Islamic Republic of Iran has also been added to this category, as the campaigns of inspection imposed on its nuclear facilities have been also tightened.
During that period, North Korea, which was mostly furious because Bush categorized it among the axis of evil, announced its withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapons. Thus, after expelling the international inspectors who belong to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) out of its territory, North Korea rushed again to continue to work on its nuclear program aiming at producing a station for electric power generation.

At the same time, North Korea agreed to continue its positive attitude to participate in the six-party talks, which were conducted at that time with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States. But the first round of those talks, in 2003, did not have a significant result.

During the second and third rounds, which were held in 2004, they also emphasized that North Korea should necessarily abandon its weapons, as they also agreed to devote the principle of peaceful coexistence between North Korea and among all those present states that are participating in these talks. In the fourth round, the continuous talks ended and North Korea declared its approval not to proceed with its nuclear program, to disable it, and to put it aside.

However, this Korean approval was conditional provided that the financial aids continue to it, and it was decided at the same time that the major powers produce a light water reactors for the production of an electrical power on the territory of North Korea.
In the second phase of these negotiations, which were held between 13 and 19 September 2004, the participating parties in the talks agreed on the principle of “work-for-work”, and they took the decision to normalize relations between North Korea and between each of the United States, South Korea, and Japan.

However, in 2005, it was also North Korea’s turn as well, where the United States began a series of violations against it and breached its agreements and covenants in this regard. In this year America practically imposed new sanctions on North Korea, despite what this year witnessed of talks that succeeded, achieved their aim, and led to a final agreement with the North Korean party.

Yet, the reason for the failure and disruption of the negotiations in the first phase was represented in the fact that the United States refused to recognize the right of North Korea to possess nuclear energy. Additionally, the U.S. refusal to establish light water power reactors in North Korea was what caused the failure of the talks in the second phase.

As for what happened during the third phase of the negotiations is that North Korea was the one that took the decision to make concessions, to suspend and to stop all nuclear activities that were carried out by it, and to disable its nuclear reactors. But, in spite of all this, and under the pretext of the “possibility that North Korea might carry out a money-laundering operation”, America confiscated nearly 24 million dollars of the assets that belong to North Korea.

During the talks that took place in 2007, which coincided with North Korea’s first missile experiments, the United States refused to make any form of agreement with North Korea regarding lifting the sanctions imposed on it. Later on July 18 of the same year, North Korea gave up under the impact of the international sanctions and pressure imposed on it, declaring its final approval to disrupt and to stop its nuclear program completely in exchange for economic and technical aids.

In this period, North Korea suspended 80 percent of its nuclear activities, but without receiving any of the technical and economic aids, which the United States of America promised to send to it. North Korea has announced recently, in 2009, its withdrawal from the six-party talks, and has subsequently expelled for the second time the international inspectors who belong to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) out of its territory.