Options To Limit North Korea's Nuclear Program Are Non-Existent

Images obtained by Yonhap News Agency show what North Korea claimed was a ballistic missile being launched from underwater near Sinpo, on the northeast coast of North Korean. Experts believe the claim they were launched from a submarine may be suspect. Photograph: KCNA/EPA

John McLaughlin, Yahoo News: Cheating on Nukes in North Korea

President Obama is pulling out the stops to defend last month’s Iran nukes deal, and there are good reasons to hope the bargain works out. But it’d be folly to deny the risks. Indeed, denial is futile, what with a cautionary example staring us right in the face.

That cautionary example is, of course, North Korea. The United States went down this road with the “Hermit Kingdom” in 1994, with the negotiation of the so-called Agreed Framework. Under its terms, North Korea was supposed to dismantle its nuclear facilities — then capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium — and receive, in return, help building less advanced reactors for peaceful purposes, as well as shipments of heavy fuel oil to offset energy shortages. But in 2002, U.S. intelligence discovered that the North was cheating — buying materials apparently intended for uranium enrichment. After years of contentious negotiations, North Korea finally fessed up in 2010.

WNU Editor: What will change the dynamics against North Korea is if it decides to start selling some of its nuclear weapons .... say to Iran or anyone else who has money to spend.