Rogue Nation

Compliance with international law

North Korea now has its own category within the Politics Category? Wow, congrats, Kim Jong-il! You have moved in to the big leagues, along with "The Environment" and "The War on Terror".

Let me be among the first to post within this category, if I may be so bold:

Rogue nations are ones who threaten the world's peace. For a nation to be declared rogue, it must ignore international directives, restrict human rights, sponsor terrorism, and seek to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.

In 2001, President George W. Bush insisted, in his Axis of Evil speech, that Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, and North Korea were "rogue nations". (Syria could have been added on that list quite easily too.)

North Korea's continued non-compliance with international laws regarding proliferation, their sustained abuses of their populace, and their breaking of treaties left and right caused the Bush Administration to label them as rogue. Their outright deception in continuing their nuclear weapons program after 1994 (when it signed a treaty with the US) was crystal clear after they announced a working nuclear bomb in 2003:

In a roundtable discussion with the United States and China
in Beijing on April 24, 2003, North Korean officials admitted
for the first time that they possessed nuclear weapons.
Furthermore, North Korean officials claim to have reprocessed
spent fuel rods and have threatened to begin exporting
nuclear materials unless the United States agrees to one-on-one
talks with North Korea. (FAS.org)

In retrospect, Clinton Administration officials admitted they were aware that the North Koreans were continuing to acquire centrifuges and other dual-use items throughout the 1990s. Yonhap News Agency recently reported that during "the Clinton administration [they had] concluded... that North Korea cheated on the Agreed Framework, that getting gas centrifuge components from Pakistan was inconsistent with the framework." (NTI.org)

The big question is: Why? Why would North Korea break international treaties? What motivated them to go back on their collective word? Were they unafraid of the consequences? Were they unwilling to pause their nuclear enrichment program out of security or welfare issues?

Looking at the original question, it is hard to see how or where North Korea has obeyed international law, ever. They seem to be taunting the international community to this day. The Korean Peninsular security problem highlights the compliance/noncompliance issue in international law.

International law is established with the intent of bringing nations around to global expectations: Simmons saw a normative influence on nations, which fosters compliance (Ku, Diehl 190). Root postulated that "'moral force' [was] a reason for compliance with the decisions of arbitration panels" (Ibid. 191).

In trying to bring North Korea back to the Six-Party bargaining table, the United States has gone out of its way to try and accommodate Kim's nuclear brinksmanship. In order to bring about compliance, the international community is offering both rewards and punishments. North Korea faces continued sanctions from the international community, including trade embargoes and the freezing of assets in overseas banks. This punitive effort tries to bring North Korea around; hoping that Kim will finally see the light and comply with UN oversight of its nuclear-electrical program. To that end, the Six Parties have offered civilian light-water reactors, food aid, and easings of financial blockades. If further compliance is not seen, the US has reserved the right to take the DPRK to the Security Council for potential regime change...

Nations must not flout international law. If not adhered to, there must be punishments. If followed, then nations are in line with global ideals and laws. Ideally, these laws are designed to ease humanity's transition into the future with peace and without incident.

Sources:

"Clinton Administration Knew of Secret North Korean Uranium-Based Weapons Program, Experts Say." Global Security Newswire, 26 May 2006. Internet: Link, accessed 6 June 2006.

Ku, Charlotte, and Diehl, Paul F. International Law: Classic and Contemporary Readings, 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner Publishers, 2003.

"Nuclear Weapons Program - North Korea." Federation of American Scientists. Internet: Link, accessed 6 June 2006.

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