Kwak, Tae-Hwan

Abstract
North Korea’s alleged admission of a highly enriched uranium program in October 2002 sparked the second nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula, openly accelerating North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program. It is estimated that the DPRK already has six or seven nuclear devices. Furthermore, Pyongyang officially announced on February 10, 2005 that it had nuclear weapons. The North Korean nuclear issue -a serious international issue as it is undoubtedly the most important obstacle to the Korean peace process- needs to be resolved as soon as possible peacefully through diplomatic negotiations at the six-party talks; a resolution that the Bush administration insists can only be arrived at through the six-party process. This article analyzes and evaluates the six-party talks in detail, viewing them as a mechanism providing a multilateral framework for resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. The author argues that the six-party process is the best means to resolve the North Korean nuclear dispute, and further maintains that bilateral talks between the U.S. and North Korea are essential to a resolution of North Korea’s nuclear standoff peacefully and diplomatically. Both need to engage in direct negotiations without preconditions through the six-party talks however, while at the same time avoiding the risk of adopting hard-line policies that cannot resolve the nuclear issue peacefully. Therefore, both sides need to be flexible about their respective positions and demonstrate the political will to compromise. This article has three specific goals: (1) to evaluate the fourth and fifth rounds of the six-party talks in terms of a multilateral framework for resolving the nuclear issue; (2) to take a closer look at U.S. financial sanctions against North Korea and the positions of concerned parties; and (3) to make policy recommendations for implementing the 9.19 joint statement to realize a denuclearized Korean peninsula.
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