By ISIS Press

• Table of Contents
• About the Book

Table of Contents

Preface
--David Albright and Kevin O'Neill Prologue
--David Albright Looking Back
--David Albright and Holly Higgins The Agreed Framework: Status Report
--David Albright and Holly Higgins An Overhead Tour: The Yongbyon Nuclear Site
--David Albright and Corey Hinderstein Inconsistencies in North Korea's Declaration to the IAEA
--David Albright Evidence of Camouflaging of Suspect Nuclear Waste Sites
--David Albright and Corey Hinderstein How Much Plutonium Did North Korea Produce?
--David Albright The Impending Cliff
--David Albright Technical Supplement: Overview of North Korea's Nuclear Fuel-Cycle Facilities in the Early 1990s The Foundation is Shaken
--Holly Higgins KEDO and North Korea: Problems and Prospects on the Road Ahead
--Mitchell Reiss Mr. Perry's New Course on North Korea
--Leon V. Sigal Clinton and North Korea: Past, Present and Future
--Joel Wit The North-South Summit and its Aftermath
--Holly Higgins Epilogue
--David Albright, Holly Higgins, and Kevin O'Neill Appendices

1. Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
   --Holly Higgins
2. Agreed Framework between the United States of America and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
3. Setting the Record Straight About Plutonium Production in North Korea
   --David Albright and Holly Higgins
4. Chronology of the Conflict between North Korea and the IAEA that led to the Request for Special Inspections
5. Chronology of Events Related to the U.S.-North Korean Agreed Framework: June 1998 - January 2000
   (Updated and expanded version available only on the ISIS website)
6. Review of United States Policy Toward North Korea: Findings and Recommendations ("Perry Report")
7. A Comprehensive Approach to North Korea
   --Richard Armitage, et al.

About the Book

In 1994 the United States and North Korea stood on the brink of war. International inspectors could not resolve how much plutonium North Korea had. The United States and its allies suspected that North Korea had already secretly produced enough plutonium for one or two nuclear weapons, and was on the verge of producing enough to make dozens of nuclear weapons per year. This crisis was resolved when North Korea and the United States negotiated an "Agreed Framework," whereby North Korea agreed to "freeze" and later dismantle its most controversial nuclear facilities, and permit the eventual verification of its nuclear activities, including the size of its plutonium stockpile. In exchange, the United States agreed to lead an international effort to build modern, more proliferation resistant nuclear reactors in North Korea. At the time, the signers expected the arrangement to be completed by about 2003. Nearly six years later, the North Korean nuclear program remains frozen, but the remainder of the Agreed Framework remains far behind schedule. Solving the North Korean Nuclear Puzzle assesses the nuclear proliferation threat posed by North Korea, describes the Agreed Framework's implementation through mid-2000, and outlines an agenda of tasks that must be completed before the Agreed Framework can be fulfilled. Using previously unpublished information, the book details the controversy between North Korea and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1992 and 1993--the controversy that led to the brink of war in 1994, and may do so again. The book provides estimates of North Korea's plutonium stock, and the number of nuclear weapons it may possess. High-resolution commercial satellite images show how North Korea deceived IAEA inspectors who sought to verify North Korea's nuclear declarations. The book contains an extensive discussion of how to resume inspections and determine that North Korea is free of nuclear weapons, an absolute precondition for the supply of the new reactors. The book places the Agreed Framework's implementation within the context of recent security developments in Northeast Asia. Two highlights are North Korea's ballistic missile program and the historic June 2000 summit between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Three well-versed North Korean experts share their perspectives on the future of the Agreed Framework and ways to make the Korean peninsula nuclear free. Solving the North Korean Nuclear Puzzle concludes that much of the responsibility for making the Agreed Framework viable rests with North Korea, and its willingness to make its nuclear program transparent.