Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 08/2014

Thinking About a Korean Denuclearization Treaty

Christopher Ford

April 2012

Hudson Institute

Abstract

Even while officials of the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) reportedly remain engaged in attempting to work out an arrangement pursuant to which the DPRK would return to the long-moribund Six-Party Talks process, there has been no shortage of commentators—including this author—who feel these negotiations are likely to founder on the rocks of Pyongyang’s unwillingness, under essentially any conditions, to relinquish its nuclear weapons and associated infrastructure. Nevertheless, the DPRK claims that it remains genuinely interested in negotiations, making it at least theoretically possible that whatever their outcome, some kind of nuclear negotiations may recommence.