A complicated problem with no distinct origins, the nuclear program in North Korea is a multi-dimensional issue that mainly involves the unification agenda, various foreign policies and international security concerns. This has essentially validated a labyrinth of anxieties worldwide.
Firstly, North Korea’s nuclear threat has been hindering any progress with regards to the unification of the peninsula. Not only that, it also gravely endangers the security architecture of the Northeast Asia region. On the international stage, the North’s possession of nuclear warfare capability directly violates the non-proliferation treaty(NPT) and the international community’s unanimous stand against nuclear proliferation. This, at the same time, also poses a severe challenge against the United States administration, which has always stressed anti-nuclear proliferation in its foreign policies.
Of course, efforts had been made to solve the crisis: relevant international organizations such as the UN and IAEA did try to step in. However, instead of achieving success, bilateral and multilateral relations between North Korea and involved parties were compromised. And even though the Nuclear Control Commission was set up in North Korea, attempts to resolve the issue fell flat when facility inspections and mutual talks were abruptly halted.
North Korea has become the foremost representative country for weapons of mass destruction(WMD). Over the past 40 years where NPT’s nuclear non-proliferation policies have been rigorously maintained, even though there were episodes of nuclear threats along the way, none could compare with the one posed by North Korea. Apart from the DPRK, no other country has been so organized and persistent in all levels in the pursuit of nuclear proliferation.
Nuclear warfare capabilities aside, North Korea has also been putting in much effort in accumulating missiles, chemical warfare weapons and related technologies. So intense are these threats that ever since the nuclear crisis in October 2002, the international community came up with a term called ‘The North Korean Contradiction’. This term encompasses all challenges that North Korea has been posing to the world, such as possessing WMD, violation of human rights; drug trafficking; money laundering; counterfeiting money bills and manufacturing missiles etc. It shows global society’s ever increasing awareness of North Korean threats and yet, amidst expanding concerns, sanctions and calls for reconciliation, the isolated country has been violating international rules and insisted on walking its own path.
Looking its development trajectory, it was initially subtly assumed that North Korea’s nuclear crisis was solely an affair within the Korean peninsula, not involving any other countries. However, as the issue became increasingly publicized in the beginning of 1990s, its sphere of influence expanded and started involving the United States, followed by other countries along the way. Hence, given the magnitude of the problem, the entire international community must come together to tackle the crisis. South Korea cannot do it alone.