By Dr. Rajkumar Singh
North Korea, a country of East Asia, is on the path of developing a nuclear weapon for the last seven decades which saw the light of the day on October 9, 2006, when it first exploded its nuclear device, continuing in subsequent years- 2009, 2013, 2016 along with first thermonuclear weapon test on September 3, 2017 and according to an estimate as of early 2020, it contains approximately 30-40 nuclear weapons with having a capacity of producing 6-7 nuclear weapons per year.
Large scale sanctions were imposed on North Korea as a result of the tests, it however, had faced United States’ sanctions from the decade 1950s which later during the 1990s relaxed but again tightened after 2003 with North Korea’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Initially, the imposed sanctions were focused on trade, but due to frequent explosions, the ban was extended to luxury goods which targeted common man and elites of the society because the series of tests also exhibited country’s increased level of expertise which further necessitated the urgency of overall bans.
In Asia, North Korea, became the fourth nuclear power state after China (1964), India (1974), , and Pakistan (1998), despite long vigil and close eye of the United States of America since 1950s as well as six-party talks were organized in series of meetings with North Korea, South Korea, Japan, United States of America, China and Russia in order to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns.
The talks registered some progress up to fifth round when North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear facilities in exchange for fuel aid and steps for normalizing relations with Japan and the US, but taking statement of UN Security Council’s seriously, North Korea withdrew from the joint talks on April 14, 2009 and also expelled all nuclear inspectors from the country, becoming free from all international laws and obligations. However, in the hope of getting something concrete the 2009 stalled talk was revived on May 27, 2018, when head of the two Korean states met followed by a meeting of American President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12, 2018, where the Kim Jong -un affirmed its commitment to denuclearized the Korean Peninsula.
Basic about nuclear programme
The horrible end of second world war due to dropping of nuclear bombs on two cities of Japan-Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945 showed the world not only its devastating effects but its power in national and international arena which made every nation of the globe its aspirant in days to come and as the situation prevail at the time it was more natural for countries like North Korea who was backed by the Soviet Union, an adversary of the United States of America and it was the phase of Cold War in international politics.
Keeping all basics in view, in December 1952 the Government of North Korea established Atomic Energy Research Institute under the Academy of Science which later in 1964 moved to Yongbyon Nuclear Research Centre, currently with three branches: a. The Pyongyang branch established in 1987 is the Atomic Energy Research Institute, b. The Nanam – kuyok branch which includes the Radioisotope Laboratory founded in 1980, and c. Wonsan branch which includes the Radiological Protection Institute. Initially, it signed two nuclear-related agreements in 1956 and 1959 respectively with Soviet Union’s Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and as a follow up North Korea began sending scientists and technicians to the USSR for training. Under the signed agreement Russia also agreed to help North Korea on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and establishing of a nuclear research complex in Yongbyon in North Pyongan Province.
Solid works on nuclear programme
The overall nuclear programme of North Korea developed further significantly in 1970s, and 1980s when the country began to use Light-Water Reactors for producing more electricity to meet the rising requirement. From late 1960s North Korea began to expand its nuclear-related education and research institutions in order to support a nuclear programme for civilian and military applications and by early 1970s its reactors began to acquire plutonium reprocessing technology from the Soviet Union and at the time it signed a trilateral safeguards agreement with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and USSR to work further under the agency in which Russia was also made a party because it had supplied the reactors fuel.
Having got technical help from the USSR for a long time in early 1980s North Korea started indigenous expansion of its the nuclear programme and constructed uranium milling facilities, fuel rod fabrication, and a 5MW(e) nuclear reactor along with research and development institutions. By that time North Korea began experimenting with high explosives required for building the nuclear bomb and simultaneously agreed to sign the Treaty on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as a non-nuclear weapon state in December 1985.
In an important development when the US announced its withdrawal of nuclear weapons from the South Korea, and as a follow up South Korea declared that it is free from nuclear weapons, both North and South Korea signed a Joint Declaration on the Denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and promised not to manufacture, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy, or use nuclear weapons.
Explosion and follow-up events
With the signing of an IAEA safeguards agreement doubts were raised on North Korea and the inspecting team revealed that technicians had reprocessed the plutonium on three occasions-in 1989, 1990, and 1991 and at the same time North Korea refused to access two of installations in the name of military sites, a new tug of war erupted between US and the North Korea which continued for years.
Sharp differences between the two on nuclear issue erupted leading to the collapse of Agreed Framework, imposing of various sanctions on South Korea and ultimately announcing of withdrawal of North Korea from the NPT on January 10, 2003. Within a year of this development in January 2004 the United States became confirmed that North Korea had acquired nuclear capability. It followed a multilateral dialogue along with other regional countries like-Japan, Russia, South Korea North Korea and US with China in lead role, but all went in vain. It gave birth to a tense relation between US and the North Korea which resulted in explosion of nuclear devices by North Korea for the first time in October 2006, although a symbolic, having less than of 1 kiloton, but improved gradually to reach the level of thermonuclear device in September in 2017.
Author: Dr. Rajkumar Singh. Professor for the last 23 years and presently Head of the University Department of Political Science with Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences at the Bhupendra Narayan Mandal University, Madhepura (Bihar), India.