With a historic nuclear accord reached
between Iran and six world powers, which will lift sanctions from the Middle
East’s second largest economy in return for significant restrictions on its
nuclear ability, North Korea remains an eyesore in the world of nuclear arms
development.
Some say that with Tehran now out of the
way, it clears the road for more attention on Pyongyang’s nuclear program, but
others point out it could further fuel the North’s drive for nuclear
development.
As the country continues to follow the
track of simultaneous nuclear and economic development and with a third nuclear
test under its belt, Pyongyang will likely pour more efforts into preserving
the leadership through its atomic arms program. Already slapped with heavy
sanctions from nuclear tests and rocket launches, there’s ample possibility
that the North will push to display its nuclear might on the international
stage instead of choosing to receive support by relinquishing its nuclear
ambitions.
The doors of negotiations could open up if
Washington and the global community gather more momentum on efforts to resolve
the nuclear deadlock with Pyongyang, but even so, such moves are expected to
fall far short of clipping the North’s appetite for nuclear power. As Kim Jong
Un continues on with his reign of terror and has come to use all means possible
to secure his leadership, he will likely extend his ambitions to threaten the
world with nuclear brinkmanship.
This is why experts are calling on the U.S.
and the international community to pressure China to step up to the plate and
strengthen cooperative ties among countries to resolve the nuclear issue with
the North.
“This nuclear deal can be a good model for
the North because the leadership can benchmark what happened in Iran,” Kim Tae
Woo, a chair-professor at Dongguk University said on Wednesday. “It probably
sent a bad message, though, in the sense that it will have made the North more
uneasy and pushed it further into isolation.”
He added that North Korea has “already crossed a river of no return” since it carried out a nuclear test, determining it was most
important to uphold the dictatorship, surmising that now it may try to speed things up
with nuclear arms development
Now, then, “South Korea needs to try to draw the
North back to the negotiating table and come up with countermeasures that can
deter the nuclear threat while working with diplomatic channels as was the case
in Iran,” Kim asserted.
