Reasons for failures in past denuclearization agreements and how to make the upcoming one successful

  • 6 years ago
Now that we have the Pyongyang-Washington summit coming up, we're hoping to see a detailed roadmap towards North Korea's denuclearization. What are some points that must be included? How can the related parties make the agreement really work this time?

Many experts have pointed out that the roadmap needs a timeline. For example, the September 19th Joint-statement is reviewed to be very comprehensive,... but the failure to put in a specified time frame resulted in the delay of denuclearization steps whenever there was a diplomatic or political issue. And with past agreements having been affected by a change in the U.S. administration, some experts say its best to complete the denuclearization at the latest, by the end of Trump's current term in office, so within the next 3 years.
Secondly, experts mentioned the importance of 'appropriate rewards' for North Korea. No country that has developed its own nuclear weapons had given them up easily. And so the North would want its denuclearization commitment to correspond with an equal 'complete, verifiable, irreversible' reward.

"What the North has to give up now is completely different from what it had to give up ten years ago. And economic or monetary rewards are not what they want. The new denuclearization agreement will need a fundamental guarantee of its security,... including a peace treaty and the normalization of ties."

And while other aspects had also been mentioned, including the steps and methods of verification,... many experts highlighted on the importance of *trust* between the North and the U.S.

"Neither side had signed the past agreements with the intention to break them. But with each side's distrust that the other side would not keep its promises, misunderstandings or delays on implementation led both the North and the U.S. to lose the direction and the will to keep up with the agreement. So on top of the technical details,... both sides need to trust each other and implement their agreements to truly denuclearize the Korean peninsula."

But with the U.S. firm on how it will not provide step by step, action-for-action rewards to the North until it fully denuclearizes, we'll have to see whether the two will find an agreement.

Alright, we all hope the summit goes well and they can reach an agreement that satisfies everyone. President Trump and Kim Jong-un seem to be determined to seal a deal. Thank you very much for coming in today Ji-won.

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