North Korea officially submitted the declaration of its nuclear programs to China on the 26th. Welcoming the declaration, President George W. Bush stated that “I am notifying Congress of my intent to rescind North Korea’s designation as a state sponsor of terror in 45 days.”
Daily NK hopes that submission of the North Korean nuclear programs to China will not lead the U.S. into rushing into the process of removing the North from the State Sponsoring Terrorism list and terminating application of the Trading with the Enemy Act.
North Korea stepped forward and took a practical first step for a long-distance marathon of denuclearization by their submission of the declaration. We do not know how long completing the 3rd phase of the denuclearization, after going through the verification of the declaration, will take. To finish the whole process will take a lot of patience on the part of South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Russia and China. Nobody knows where exactly the North Korean denuclearization is going, due to potential obstacles being set in the process. We can easily imagine it going many possible directions, as we think back on the way things have happened for past 17 years, since the first North Korean nuclear crisis.
However, the submission of the declaration is significant as the first practical step of denuclearization. At the same time, the coming 45 days are important, so we have to make efforts to figure out whether the declaration is fake or true.
The destruction of the cooling tower is mere propaganda, with Kim Jong Il showing off trying to dismantle his nuclear program and drawing international attention. Propaganda itself is not a real existence or a truth of one, but just a mission or a purpose that one tries to work for.
The cooling tower is one of the facilities in Yongbyon which has already been shut down. Kim Jong Il grew up among propaganda, and he must know that seeing is much more powerful than listening, feeling or smelling. Therefore, there may be just a small number of people who have figured out the essence of the issue and who can rationally see that the collapse of the cooling tower was just a sort of “show.”
Therefore, propaganda can often make a difference in people’s minds and sometimes causes a very frightening situation. Some media even consider that “Now North Korea has completely disabled its nuclear program.”
The U.S. is carrying out verification of the nuclear program’s contents over the next 45 days. The main aspects of the verification are the amount and the use ranges of plutonium, the nuclear facilities, the enrichment uranium program, and nuclear proliferation, especially with Syria and Iran. However, the fact that information on nuclear weapons was excluded and that suspicions on the nuclear connection with Syria and the UEP will be treated in a manner of indirect acknowledgement through only a secret document falls short of our expectation.
U.S. President George W. Bush stated on June 26, right after North Korea’s submission of its declaration, that “The next 45 days will be an important period for North Korea to show its seriousness of its cooperation.” He additionally emphasized that “The United States has no illusions about the regime in Pyongyang. We remain deeply concerned about North Korea’s human rights abuses, uranium enrichment activities, nuclear testing and proliferation, ballistic missile programs, and the threat it continues to pose to South Korea and its neighbors.”
However, experts are worrying how accurately and precisely the declaration will be verified after only 45 days. Some are concerned that the lame duck Bush administration might hasten the verification to record a diplomatic achievement.
The Lee Myung Bak administration should step forward and insist on complete verification of the North Korean nuclear program, strengthening cooperation with the U.S., Japan and China.
