Dismantling NK nukes ‘slow, costly’
If President Donald Trump is successful in convincing Kim Jong-un to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, the effort would be unprecedented in its size and complexity, analysts say.
‘‘This would be the biggest undertaking by the international community when it comes to denuclearisation or disarmament,’’ said Olli Heinonen, an arms control expert at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, a national security think-tank.
If Trump and Kim reach an agreement, the process could take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, Heinonen said.
North Korean officials announced yesterday they will take the first steps in less than two weeks to dismantle the country’s nuclear test site.
The dismantling of the underground nuclear test site will include collapsing its tunnels with explosions, blocking its entrances and removing all observation facilities, research buildings and security posts, according to media reports.
Journalists from the United States, Russia, South Korea, China and Britain will be invited to witness the process, North Korea state media said.
The move comes weeks before Trump will meet with Kim on June 12 in Singapore to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Both sides say they hope for a breakthrough.
The United States has said its objective is the complete dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear program and the elimination of its weapons stockpile. It is not clear what, if anything, North Korea will agree to at the summit or what Kim means by denuclearisation.
In developing a plan to denuclearise North Korea disarmament experts would look to several successful precedents. But none of them have involved a country with a programme as advanced and large as North Korea’s.
John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, said that the dismantling of Libya’s nuclear program in 2003 might serve as a model.
‘‘One thing that Libya did that led us to overcome our skepticism was that they allowed American and British observers into all their nuclear-related sites,’’ Bolton told CBS News recently. – USA Today