North Korea agrees to nuclear disarmament. They agreed to shut down their main reactor within 60 days. It looks like the first step in peaceful resolution to the nuclear crisis with the dark regime that performed a nuclear test in October. The other nuclear crisis, Iran, is slowly escalating. Could N. Korea’s path be followed by Iran?
North Korea
It took 3 years and 6 nations to negotiate the disarmament of North Korea. The next steps include irreversibly disabling the nuclear facilities, transferring heavy fuel / economic help to N. Korea, renewing diplomatic relations with the US and Japan, and removing the country from the various US blacklists. Human rights issues weren’t mentioned. Talks will continue.
North Korea has a dark regime which totally controls its poor people. There are reports of starvation cases in the isolated communist country. The bad economic situation and world isolation might have led Kim Jung-Il and his friends (if he has any) to abandon the nuclear ambitions.
Iran
Iran is in a different state, than its fellow “Axis of Evil” companion. The country is rich with oil. The Iranian regime, despite fresh UN sanctions, isn’t really isolated. Russia and China are much more supportive to Iran than to N. Korea. There are more economic interests around Iran. Buying out Iran won’t be as cheap as N. Korea.
Iran has been fooling around with the UN inspectors with their nuclear sites for quite a long time. They lost the trust of the Europeans. The Iranian rhetoric seems to soften. Could it be connected to the breakthrough with N. Korea? Probably not directly. Is it another trick from Ahmedinajad?
I hope to see Iran follow North Korea with giving up their development of dangerous nuclear ambitions.