With the
strong push of Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
has inched closer to the table for six-party talks on nuclear disarmament that
also involve the United States, South Korea, Japan, and Russia. A North Korean
envoy states that the country wishes to concentrate on economic development and
thus is open to working towards more peaceful relations with other countries.
Both parties wish to cooperate in promoting stability on the peninsula and to
strengthen ties with each other.
Because
China is the one country with the most access to North Korea’s decision-makers,
it is crucial that President Xi Jinping prioritize the success of the talks in
ending Pyongyang’s nuclear proliferation. But such six-party talks have failed
in the past: beginning in 2003, the talks were created in response to North
Korea breaking the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. North Korea left these
talks in 2009 when the United Nations Security Council resolved to impose
heavier sanctions on the former for a nuclear test than in years past. Since
then, Pyongyang has refused to acknowledge the world’s disapproval of its
currently running nuclear weapons program. The country’s bitter threats of war
against the United States these past few years never existed as true actions.
Although the world breathes a sigh of relief in China’s stronger encouragement
for nuclear disarmament in North Korea, will North Korea truly consider ceasing
to develop nuclear weapons?
Many
citizens believe that North Korea will not return to an agreement like that of
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; more likely, North Korea will settle for
no less than a certain, agreed-upon number of nuclear ballistic missiles.
Again, this is only if the six-party talks really proceed and end in agreement
between countries that, for years now, have developed hostile relations. At the
very least, however, China’s move is a hope for mollified tension.
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