The North Korea nuclear weapons issue involves many short-term security problems for the United States. North Korea has used the testing of nuclear weapons and the threat of using nuclear weapons as provocations to induce engagement, to extract economic aid or support, to demand diplomatic recognition, and to undermine US alliances. All of the US military bases in Japan and South Korea, along with many American businesses and people that live, work, and travel to these countries, are within range of
North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons and the United States 133 North Korea’s missiles. In addition to the need to protect these assets, the United States must maintain its credibility as a protector of its allies Japan and South Korea.
Another immediate US objective is nonproliferation. The US government wants to reduce the appeal of the North Korea example to other countries contemplating building their own nuclear weapons. North Korea’s deploy-ment of nuclear weapons in defiance of US warnings undercuts current US negotiations with Iran, possibly providing additional confidence to Teheran and other governments not to succumb to US pressure.
It is not just its example that promotes proliferation; North Korea is actually collaborating with other countries in building nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. The US Department of Defense said one of its “gravest concerns” about North Korea is “its demonstrated willingness to prolifer-ate nuclear technology.”8 North Korea and Iran have worked together on their nuclear and missile programs, have exchanged nuclear scientists, and have completed deals to transfer weapons. The two countries also signed a science and technology agreement similar to a deal North Korea and Syria made in 2002 that led to the Syrians nearly producing a nuclear reactor undetected.9 The George W. Bush administration was divided over how to deal with the plutonium reactor North Korea helped Syria build. Eventually, in September 2007, Israel bombed and destroyed the reactor.10 With Syria engulfed in an inconclusive civil war, North Korea’s past connections with supplying weapons to Syria brings concern that the Syrian government could use North Korea–supplied weapons in another massacre.11
North Korea has sought out nuclear technology cooperation with other countries outside of the Middle East as well. Part of North Korea’s nuclear and missile success was because of the interaction it had with Pakistan and the A. Q. Khan network. North Korea also had a relationship with Burma (Myanmar). When the United States expanded relations with Burma under the Obama administration, Washington asked Burma to reduce its military ties with North Korea and in particular to desist from any involvement in North Korea missile or nuclear technology trafficking. There is some concern that Burma might have kept a few channels open to these dangerous pro-grams. The US Treasury Department’s blacklisting of Lieutenant-General Thein Htay for conducting illicit military arms trade with North Korea and
the seizure of aluminum alloy rods that could be used for making nuclear centrifuges suggest there are still some possibly dangerous connections between North Korea and Burma.12
The US government fears North Korea could reach beyond state-to-state interaction to provide weapons expertise to non-state actors and terrorist organizations. Recently a US District Court judge ruled that North Korea
“had worked in concert with Iran and Syria to provide rocket and missile components to Hezbollah” in the Middle East.13
In addition to the security and political concerns, a breakout of violence on the Korean Peninsula would be extremely damaging for the United States’ and South Korea’s economies as well as the regional and world economies. When tensions were high on the Korean Peninsula last year after North Korea began closing operations at the Kaesong Industrial Com-plex, General Motors (GM) CEO Dan Akerson said that his company was making contingency plans to get GM workers out of Korea if North Korean provocations escalated.14 Even absent a major military conflict, a period of persistent high tensions could force foreign businesses to rethink their operations in South Korea.
For the United States government, promoting respect for human rights globally is a major national interest and component of US foreign policy.
North Korea’s abysmal human rights record also stands in the way of better relations with the United States and the international community. North Korea’s frequent incarceration of American citizens on questionable grounds further antagonizes Washington. These human rights issues complicate the US government’s ability to find ways to address North Korea’s nuclear weap-ons program. The recent United Natiweap-ons Commission of Inquiry Report on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, along with recent books such as Nothing to Envy and Escape from Camp 14 that recall the difficult circumstances defectors faced inside North Korea, has brought unprecedented attention to the scale of the country’s human rights problem.
Thus, US human rights policy toward North Korea and its denuclearization efforts could be more closely linked. Improvement on human rights and the return of US citizens would remove one of the obstacles preventing an improvement in the US-DPRK relationship.
North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons and the United States 135 In the long term, the United States wants to see a reduction of nuclear weapons around the world. The Obama administration says it aspires to a nuclear weapons–free world. His promotion of nuclear nonproliferation was one of the reasons President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. This goal is also closely intertwined with the long-term US interest in maintaining an international order that regulates, monitors, and enforces universal norms. There is a global nonproliferation regime made up of organizations, laws, and resolutions to help prevent nuclear and mis-sile proliferation and escalation. The Non-Proliferation Treaty on Nuclear Weapons (NPT) attempted to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and technology. North Korea’s withdrawal from the NPT set a bad precedent and hurt international cooperation on nonproliferation.
North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons is an obstacle to Korean reunification. If countries in the region have reservations about a unified Korea, these reservations are greater if that unified Korea was sure to have nuclear weapons. Moreover, if the United States and countries in the region were able to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, this would eliminate the potential danger of a race to seize and control those nuclear weapons and materials by special forces from China, South Korea, and the United States during a collapse of North Korea scenario. A long-term interest of the United States is to keep the unification process as peaceful as possible. A peaceful process is much less likely with North Korea in possession of nuclear weapons.