The Birth and Revival of North Korea’s Denuclearization Policy for the Korean Peninsula1

Abstract

To North Korea, the denuclearization plan of the Korean Peninsula is the first of its reactions to the American nuclear issue, and a regional ban on nuclear weapons that the country concerned can propose in order to deal with the regional nuclear issue. North Korea had already shown an interest in the establishment of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) in 1954; however, it began to assert the establishment of a NWFZ in the Korean Peninsula by applying the concept to their security environment in 1976, in which it started its activities as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. The implementation of North Korea’s denuclearization policy on the Korean Peninsula unfolded in 1986, as North Korea authorized its plan for the denuclearization of the Peninsula as an immediate objective of its diplomatic activities. That is, North Korea pursued the establishment of a denuclearized zone on the Peninsula with the goal of managing its relationship with the Soviet Union and strengthening diplomacy of the Non-Aligned in 1986. Even though North Korea’s traditional claim for denuclearization of the Peninsula no longer served as an immediate task after 1994, when the first North Korean nuclear crisis was resolved, it re-emerged at the policy-level due to the 9.19 Joint Statement in 2005. Such re-authorization as party discourses was influenced by the engagement of the United States and South Korea, and active persuasion by China. It is noted that the denuclearization policy for the Korean Peninsula was re-authorized as party discourses of North Korea even after their declaration of nuclear-state status. Though this assertion towards denuclearization of the Peninsula remained as party discourses even after the suspension of the Six-Party Talks, it is yet unclear whether their willingness to pursue this policy has once again been reinforced at the higher levels amid the recent situation of the inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korea dialogues. It is inevitable that the diplomatic solution for the North Korean nuclear issue shall begin by reinforcing the denuclearization argument in North Korea. It is time to draw the international community’s coordinated engagement to make North Korea choose denuclearization more clearly.