Suchergebnisse

North Korea's disclosure in October 2002 of its nuclear program based on uranium enrichment and its withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in January 2003, have led to an acute international crisis. The North Korean crisis is not new; the world has witnessed a similar crisis in 1992, when North Korea threatened to withdraw from the NPT and which eventually led to the 1994 Agreed Framework. The United States does not have a clear policy on North Korea to date. Due to a high degree of mistrust and to limited and confusing information coming from Pyongyang, two different views have been developed on North Korea. The first view is that North Korea does have real security concerns and Kim Jung Il is merely trying to assure his position as a leader and to safeguard against a U.S. attack. The second view which seems to be embraced by the majority of American politicians is that North Korea is using its nuclear weapon program to blackmail the U.S. and to receive such benefits as oil and food. In this paper I will try to explore the two opposing views and try to come to a conclusion on the whether North Korea's security concerns are grounded or not.