North Korea in 1993: In the Eye of the Storm

Abstract

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was the focus of international attention in 1993 because of the controversy over its nuclear weapons program. A series of developments that included collapse of inter-Korean dialogue, the resumption of the U.S.-South Korea Team Spirit military exercise, and unprecedented pressure from the International Atomic Energy Agency (TAEA) to open two undeclared sites to special inspections prompted Pyongyang to take the extreme step on March 12 of giving notice that it intended to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The North claimed that the two suspect nuclear waste sites were military facilities unrelated to its nuclear program and that the agency's request was improperly based on third party intelligence information. Although suggesting a worst-case nuclear breakout scenario, the withdrawal announcement was couched in conditional language, calling for an end to the U.S. threat and restoration of IAEA impartiality, that suggested Pyongyang might reconsider. Even though Pyongyang had not yet suspended its NPT withdrawal, it allowed an IAEA visit in May on the eve of talks with the United States on the nuclear issue. Similarly, its declaration on March 8 of a semi-war alert in response to Team Spirit in fact gave great prominence to stepping up socialist construction. Two rounds of high-level U.S.-DPRK talks were held on the nuclear issue in 1993 between delegations headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok Chu and Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Robert Gallucci. The first round in New York on June 2-11 resulted in a joint statement that laid out the principles underpinning the talks and announced the DPRK's suspension of its withdrawal from the NPT. The second round of talks in Geneva on July 14-19 was noteworthy for the DPRK's proposal to