North Korea Hostilities

2018 — trump became the first president to meet with a north korea leader when he held a summit with kim jong un in singapore
- predicted two leaders would have a “terrific relationship” 🙄
  - came after a tense period in 2017 when the two leaders exhanged insults and threats as north korea carried out a series of missles and nuclear tests

north korea’s quest for a nuclear weapon can be traced back decades to the korean war

1950 — president harry truman said there was “active consideration” of using the atomic bomb in the conflict
with the help of the soviet union, north korea began work on a nuclear complex, in the early 1980s, built first power plant, yongbyon

1985 — became party to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT)
1991 — signed an agreement by rival, south korea in which both countries agreed not to produce or use nuclear weapons
as the international atomic energy agency (IAEA) pressed for access to the north’s nuclear waste sites, the country warned that it would withdrow from the NPT

1994 — north korea threatened to reprocess fuel rods from its nuclear reactor
- step that would give it enough weapons-grade plutonium for five or six nuclear weapons
clintion considered 6 various responses
- strike on the yongbyon facility
- chose to negotiate with pyongyang
october, negotiations resulted in a deal known as the agreed framework
- agreed to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear facilities in exchange for a move toward normalizing relations with the united states

1998 — test fired an intermediate-range missle
- taepo dong-1: estimate range of 900 - 1800 miles ; failed
agreed to a moratorium on testing medium and long range missles as long as talks with the US continued

2001 — president george w bush took office and his administration took a more hardline approach to north korea
- postponing talks and expressing skepticism about whether pyongyang was adhering to the agreed framework
labeled north korea among one of the three nations in an ‘axis of evil’ in his 2002 state of the union
- said north korea was secretly enriching uranium — pyongyang denied
- fuel oil shipments agreed under president clinton was suspended

2002 — ordered IAEA out of the country and the agreed framework collapsed
- experts described this period as a missed opportunity

2003 — the relationship hit a new low with north korea’s official withdrawl from the nonproliferation treaty
- north korea admitted to having at least one nuclear weapon

2003 — bush administration would re-engage with north korea
- joining south korea, japan, russia, and china in the six party talks

2005 — talks to produce joint statement, whic north korea once agreed in principle to give up its nuclear weapons program, rejoin the nonproliferation treaty and accept IAEA inspections, while maintaining that it had the right to peaceful nuclear energy
- five other countries agreed to energy assistance and to discuss giving north korea light-water reactors

july 2006 — broke its 1999 moratorium on testing medium and long range missiles
- lauched seven ballastic missiles including taepo dong-2, which if perfected would have hit alaska

july 2007 — north korea shuts down their nuclear facilities in yongbyon
- also agreed to disable the facilities
- in return would recieve fuel oil and be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism

north korea launched a unha-2 rocket with the goal of putting a satellite in space
- US and allies had warned pyongyang they would consider the launch a violation of UN resolutions
- launch failed, security council tighten sanctions

may 24th — north korea conducted second underground nuclear test, estimated to measure four kilotons
- sanctions followed
  - UN security council and then US

2011 — pyongyang hinted that it would be willing to resume multilateral talks
- kim jong ill dies in december
  - kim jong un is named north korea’s leader

pace of ballistic missles tests and nuclear tests would significally escalate under kim jong un

2012 — north korea once again attempted a space launch with the unha-3 after agreeing to a moratorium on nuclear long range missles with obama adminstration
- US halted food aid in response
december — successfully launched the unha-3 and putting an object into orbit for the first time in its history
- rocket was similiar in design to a missle that could possibly carry a warhead as far as california
  - UN security council passed a new resolution a month later

2013 - 2016 — north korea held three more nuclear tests
- north korea claimed to test its first hydrogen bomb
- continued to make strides in its ballistic program

south korean president, moon jae in reached out to north korea, inviting athletes from the north to march with their southern counterparts in the opening ceremony under one flag
- kim jong un accepted and sent his sister as a representative
- north korean official attended the closing ceremony indicating that the north was willing to talk with the US

March — kim jong un invites the stale cheese puff to meet for negotiations about north korea’s nuclear program
mid april, cheese puff confirmed reports that CIA director mike pompeo made a top-secret trip to meet kim jong un in north korea in late march
- april 20 — north korea announced that it would suspend nuclear and missle testing
  - also shut down the site where its six previous nuclear tests were carried out

North Korean Nuclear Negotiations

negotiations between the US and north korea have proceeded in fits and starts for decades

decemeber — north korea joins nonproliferation regime
- nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT) — multilateral agreement whose dozens of signatories have commited to halting the spread of nuclear weapons and technology

september — US removes nukes from south korea
- US announces it will withdraw roughly one hundred nuclear weapons from south korea as part of the original strategic arms reduction treaty
- agreement between george h.w. bush and soviet leader mikhail gorbachev