rial role until the
elder KIM's death in 1994. After decades of economic mismanagement
and resource misallocation, the DPRK since the mid-1990s has relied
heavily on international aid to feed its population while continuing
to expend resources to maintain an army of 1 million. North Korea's
long-range missile development, as well as its nuclear, chemical,
and biological weapons programs and massive conventional armed
forces, are of major concern to the international community. In
December 2002, following revelations that the DPRK was pursuing a
nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium in violation of a
1994 agreement with the US to freeze and ultimately dismantle its
existing plutonium-based program, North Korea expelled monitors from
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In January 2003, it
declared its withdrawal from the international Non-Proliferation
Treaty. In mid-2003 Pyongyang announced it had completed the
reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods (to extract weapons-grade
plutonium) and was developing a "nuclear deterrent." Since August
2003, North Korea has participated in the Six-Party Talks with
China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the US designed to resolve
the stalemate over its nuclear programs. The fourth round of
Six-Party Talks were held in Beijing during July-September 2005. All
parties agreed to a Joint Statement of Principles in which, among
other things, the six parties unanimously reaffirmed the goal of
verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful
manner. In the Joint Statement, the DPRK committed to "abandoning
all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at
an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons and to IAEA safeguards." The Joint Statement also commits
the US and other parties to certain actions as the DPRK
denuclearizes. The US offered a security assurance, specifying that
it had no nuclear weapons on ROK territory and no intention to
attack or invade the DPRK with nuclear or other weapons. The US and
DPRK will take steps to normalize relations, subject to the DPRK's
implementing its denuclearization pledge and resolving other
longstanding concerns. While the Joint Statement provides a vision
of the end-point of the Six-Party process, much work lies ahead to
implement the elements of the agreement.

Geography Korea, North

Loc