Vol. 71/No. 9      March 5, 2007

Not only Washington and Tokyo, but Beijing too, put heavy pressure on the DPRK leading up to the accord. That included a vote last October for the U.S.-sponsored resolution by the UN Security Council and cargo inspections at the Chinese-north Korean border.

Under the agreement, Pyongyang agreed to seal its main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, to be verified within 60 days by inspectors from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In exchange, Washington, Beijing, Moscow, and Seoul are supposed to send within the same time period an emergency shipment of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, plus an additional 950,000 tons of oil for disabling the plant entirely. Japan's president, Shinzo Abe, said shortly after the agreement was reached that Tokyo will not provide any energy assistance to north Korea.

According to Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, U.S. president George Bush "emphasized the continued need for nations to fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1718" following the agreement. That resolution bans the import or export to or from north Korea of material or equipment that could be used to make nuclear arms, ballistic missiles, heavy military equipment, spare parts, or "luxury items." It also calls for inspections of all cargo entering or exiting north Korea, and for freezing the assets and banning the travel of anyone accused of supporting the DPRK's weapons program.

Other sanctions, however, predate the October 2006 resolution. In September 2005, the U.S. Treasury Department accused Banco Delta Asia, a bank based in Macau, China, of counterfeiting for the DPRK and blocked U.S. banks from doing business with it. In response, other foreign banks, especially in Asia, cut off their business with north Korea for fear of similar reprisals. According to Stratfor, a U.S. private intelligence analysis firm, "Both legitimate and illegitimate North Korean bank accounts were suddenly closed, and service to North Korean business and those doing business with North Korea was curtailed."

Under the new agreement, Beijing, which accounts for more than half of Pyongyang's foreign trade, is to lead a group overseeing the closure of the Yongbyon facility and negotiating the return of IAEA inspectors to north Korea. China supplies 90 percent of north Korea's oil, 80 percent of its consumer goods, and 45 percent of its food.

"Beijing's obviously leaning toward Washington pressured North Korea and gave them no choice," Zhu Feng, international studies professor at Beijing University, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Last year's trading volume between the two countries increased only by 5 percent, the smallest increase in the past 15 years. They can live on what if China's aid disappears?"

The February 13 agreement contains provisions for starting the process of normalizing relations between the United States and north Korea. Washington has refused to sign a peace treaty in the five decades since the DPRK fought U.S. military forces to a stalemate in the Korean War. Washington keeps 30,000 troops on Korean soil and nuclear-armed warships in surrounding waters as part of maintaining the partition of that country it imposed in 1945.

The new accord also calls for the U.S. government to begin removing the DPRK from its list of "terrorist" governments. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters February 15, "I can't tell you exactly how long that process will take."

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported February 17 that Washington is deploying a dozen F-22 stealth fighter jets to its military base in Okinawa, Japan. A statement from the U.S. military said the move was aimed at showing "the flexibility that U.S. forces have to meet our ongoing commitments and security obligations throughout the Pacific."
 
 
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