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North Korea: Countries
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Although international humanitarian aid has helped address the food crisis, North Korea is not out of danger yet. Food supplies continue to be a problem, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases are a major health concern and poverty continues to grip the population. North Korea recently enacted modest economic reforms through more market-oriented price adjustments and some corresponding wage increases, yet it is too early to tell how these changes will ultimately impact the country and its citizens. Signs of poverty are showing in urban areas, which until recently was primarily a rural phenomenon.
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The 1994 Agreed Framework wasn’t perfect and North Korea was not in 100% compliance. But it was the only thing that stopped North Korea from producing nuclear weapons and separating plutonium. During the Clinton administration, North Korea didn’t make any nuclear bombs. Today, the country possesses material for as many as 13 nuclear weapons. The vast majority of that material was created during the George W. Bush administration. (All the rest was created during his father’s adminstration.)
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As tensions rise over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, President George W. Bush has halted all food-aid shipments to the country. Washington defends the move, citing concern over adequate monitoring and delivery of the food-aid program. Critics argue that the US is using food "as a weapon," to deter the country from developing nuclear arms. North Korea has depended on food-aid from the US ever since famines in the mid-1990s killed around 2 million.
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North Korea has won both economic and political reward from this agreement, said Yan Xuetong, director of international studies at Qinghua University in Beijing. "Two of the five working groups are political groups, (to discuss) normalizing ties with Japan and the USA. Both of those countries had refused this for a long time, so this is a political reward for North Korea," Yan said.
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During the present period of limited, extremely cautious opening, North Korea has sought to broaden its formal diplomatic relationships. In July 2000, North Korea began participating in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), with Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun attending the ARF ministerial meeting in Bangkok. The D.P.R.K. ... expanded its bilateral diplomatic ties in that year, establishing diplomatic relations with Italy, the Philippines, Australia, Canada, the U.K., Germany, and many other European countries.
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A breakthrough was finally reached in February 2007, when North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear facilities and allow international inspectors to enter the country in exchange for about $400 million in oil and aid. In July, the country followed up on the February agreement, shutting down its weapons-making nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency verified the move. North Korea went a step further in October, announcing it would disable its nuclear facilities and disclose to international monitors an accounting of all of its nuclear programs by the end of 2007. It failed... to make the disclosure.
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