South Korea has joined forces with the rest of the parties involved in the nuclear treaty in an attempt to convince North Korea to restart the disablement of their nuclear plants. If you remember, North Korea had stopped disabling their nuclear facilities and had discussed enabling said facilities because the United States had not yet taken them off of a blacklist which forfeited their right to receive United States economic aid. North Korea argued that they should be receiving aid because they were in the process of disabling their facilities. The United States was not ready to give aid yet because the facilities had not been fully disabled.
The economic aid in exchange for disarming nuclear facilities was a deal constructed by the United States, China, North and South Korea, Russia, and Japan. The US is still holding fast that they will not deliver any aid to Korea until North Korea allows them to verify the validity of their claims for having disabled their plants. Honestly I can’t imagine why North Korea won’t allow the US to check up on their progress if they are making good on their word. It reeks of conspiracy if they are claiming one thing but not allowing anyone to check that claim.
South Korea commented that this is “typical” of North Korea. The South Korean spokesperson said, “The North Korean announcement appears to be a typical tactic.” North Korea consistently tries to lie and manipulate the rest of the world with regard to their nuclear program. They have always had nuclear aspirations and I would be surprised if they were actually willing to give those up for some economic aid. We need to watch them carefully if the treaty resumes and not assume that they are doing as they say. The only way this will work is if we are allowed to continually and randomly verify that their plants are disabled.
