Analysis and Resources on North Korea and the Agreed Framework

For Immediate Release: October 17, 2002

Press Contacts: Daryl Kimball, (202) 463-8270 x107 or Paul Kerr, (202) 463-8270 x102

(Washington, D.C.): The Bush administration said last night that North Korea has admitted to covertly pursuing nuclear weapons, thereby violating its commitments under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 to not develop nuclear weapons and under the 1994 Agreed Framework to work toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. According to the Bush administration, North Korea has further claimed it was "nullifying" the Agreed Framework, which was negotiated by the United States in response to Pyongyang's 1993 announcement that it intended to withdraw from the NPT.

Much remains unclear about how advanced the covert North Korean nuclear weapons program is and the future of the Agreed Framework, but the Arms Control Association has resources available on North Korea, the Agreed Framework, and the NPT to help inform reporting and debate on this important subject. An exhaustive list of fact sheets, monthly reporting, feature articles by outside experts, and transcripts of past Association press conferences is available at the ACA Web site, www.armscontrol.org/country/northkorea/.

Key resources include:

• "The U.S.-North Korean Agreed Framework at a Glance"
• "Chronology of U.S.-North Korean Nuclear and Missile Diplomacy"
• "The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty at a Glance"
• Transcript of an April 2002 ACA press conference, "Progress and Challenges in Denuclearizing North Korea," featuring Ambassador Robert Gallucci; KEDO representative Marc Vogelaar; and Leon Sigal, a noted author and expert on North Korea who is the director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council. Other past ACA press conferences on the subject are also available, including an October 2000 event with Joel Wit, a former State Department coordinator for the 1994 Agreed Framework; Alan Romberg, another former State Department official involved with developing U.S. policy toward North Korea; David Albright, noted nuclear weapons expert and editor of Solving the North Korean Nuclear Puzzle; and Joseph Cirincione, director of the Nonproliferation Project of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
• Feature articles by experts, including two by Leon Sigal, "Negotiating an End to North Korea's Missile-Making" and "Averting a Train Wreck with North Korea."
• Authoritative news reports by Association analysts on all developments regarding North Korea since the negotiation of the Agreed Framework. (Reports before 1997 are not available on the Web site, but may be obtained by calling the Association at (202) 463-8270.)

The Arms Control Association is an independent, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies.

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