LYCOS RETRIEVER 
North Korea: United States
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North Korea now seems to have decisively shifted the terms of the Six-Party Talks. Until last year, the negotiations were meant to freeze Pyongyang's non-nuclear status, without guarantees of its regime's stability. Now, the talks will be about reversing North Korea's de facto nuclear weapons status.
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As the 1990s progressed, concern over the North's nuclear program became a major issue in North-South relations and between North Korea and the United States. The lack of progress on implementation of the Joint Declaration's provision for an inter-Korean nuclear inspection regime led to reinstatement of the U.S.-R.O.K. Team Spirit military exercise for 1993. The situation worsened rapidly when North Korea, in January 1993, refused IAEA access to two suspected nuclear waste sites and then announced in March 1993 its intent to withdraw from the NPT. During the next two years, the United States held direct talks with the D.P.R.K. that resulted in a series of agreements on nuclear matters, including the 1994 Agreed Framework (which broke down in 2002 when North Korea was discovered to be pursuing a uranium enrichment program for nuclear weapons--see below, Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula).
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An indication of the first was Japan's firm opening statement that North Korea simply could not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Japanese opinion had been hardening against the North ever since Kim Jong Il had confessed to the kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the 1970s — an admission that was meant to mollify but actually outraged. And as the only nation that has suffered a nuclear attack, Japan has a unique moral authority in Asia on such matters.
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On October 9 2006, North Korea conducted its first nuclear test. The blast was smaller than expected and U.S. officials suggested that it may have been an unsuccessful test or a partially successful fizzle. North Korea has previously stated that it has produced nuclear weapons and according to U.S. intelligence and military officials it has produced, or has the capability to produce, up to six or seven such devices.
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Last night the government of North Korea proclaimed to the world that it had conducted a nuclear test. We’re working to confirm North Korea’s claim. Nonetheless, such a claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and security. The United States condemns this provocative act. Once again North Korea has defied the will of the international community, and the international community will respond.
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Ellison closed his remarks by advising North Korea, "It is time to come to the six-nation bargaining table. It is time to give up a path that can only lead to dire consequences. It is time to give up your nuclear weapons program. The United Nationals Security Council has spoken with a voice of unanimity, and the message is loud and clear. Don't go the path of nuclear weapons proliferation or there will be consequences by the international community."
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