[Initial Insight] North Korea's 'Yeongbyeon Card' Spanning Three Generations, Time to Give Up

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raised the possibility of North Korea restarting the Yongbyon plutonium 5MW reactor in a report submitted to the recent general conference.

The IAEA presented signs such as the release of cooling water from the reactor since early July and the extraction of plutonium from spent fuel rods at a nearby research institute as evidence of the reactor's restart. The reactor had stopped operating in December 2018, right after the Singapore summit, so if the report is accurate, activities have resumed after two and a half years.

The operation of the Yongbyon 5MW reactor is practically considered a signal of North Korea's nuclear activities resuming. Although reprocessing at the Radiochemical Laboratory can be done with existing spent fuel rods, restarting the reactor means additional production of plutonium, the raw material for nuclear weapons.

However, there is no need to overreact just because North Korea has restarted the Yongbyon reactor. This is not the first time North Korea has played the ‘Yongbyon card.’

The Yongbyon nuclear complex has been at the center of North Korea's denuclearization process since the era of Chairman Kim Il-sung in 1993.

In March 1993, after North Korea declared its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in protest against the IAEA's special inspections, it threatened to "turn Seoul into a sea of fire" during the inter-Korean talks held in Panmunjom the following year, creating the ‘first North Korean nuclear crisis.’

Subsequently, Kang Sok-ju, North Korea's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Robert Gallucci, the U.S. State Department's Special Representative for North Korea, met to hold high-level North Korea-U.S. talks, resulting in the ‘Geneva Framework Agreement,’ which focused on nuclear freeze, economic aid, and normalization of relations.

However, the second North Korean nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 during Kim Jong-il's leadership when North Korea admitted to James Kelly, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the existence of a highly enriched uranium nuclear development program.

When the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) stopped supplying heavy fuel oil, North Korea declared the ‘lifting of the nuclear freeze’ and resumed reactor activities. Subsequently, the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear issue were launched, and in 2005, the ‘September 19 Joint Statement’ containing six points, including North Korea's abandonment of all nuclear weapons and nuclear programs, was adopted.

In 2007, North Korea agreed to the ‘shutdown and disablement of the Yongbyon reactor’ and the following year staged a demolition show for the world. On June 6 of that year, under the watch of Six-Party Talks participants and the press, North Korea blew up the Yongbyon reactor cooling tower.

By demolishing the cooling tower of the 5MW reactor that had reached the end of its lifespan, North Korea demanded the lifting of sanctions and recognition of its regime. It was a deception of the entire world.

The last time the U.S. and North Korea agreed to halt nuclear activities at Yongbyon was the ‘February 29 Agreement’ reached during the Barack Obama administration in 2012. It was an agreement in which the U.S. provided food aid to North Korea in exchange for a temporary suspension of nuclear tests, long-range missile launches, and uranium enrichment activities at Yongbyon, but it became ineffective due to North Korea's missile launches.

North Korea again played the Yongbyon card at the second North Korea-U.S. summit held in Hanoi in February 2019.

However, it failed again. At that time, President Donald Trump demanded a ‘plus alpha (α)’ by stating that there were other facilities besides Yongbyon in North Korea, and North Korea did not accept this proposal.

This time, North Korea's restart of the Yongbyon 5MW reactor is also merely a pressure tactic against the U.S. The Joe Biden administration is well aware of North Korea's intentions. The basic stance of the Biden administration's North Korea strategy is not to repeat the mistakes made during the 2008 demolition show.

Our government should not be shaken by North Korea's Yongbyon card either. If North Korea refuses unconditional dialogue, we should not take a single step forward. The Yongbyon card, spanning three generations of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un, is now time to be abandoned.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.