North Korea Nuclear Testing Report
North Korea’s nuclear testing has become a major security concern. The idea of having nuclear weapons owned by a country that is known for violence is scary. Nuclear and missile tests are a major concern for the leaders of the United States and South Korea. Although many attempts to end the nuclear program have occurred, North Korea has always backed out. All of the stated make North Korean nuclear testing a legitimate concern.
Nuclear weapons cause destructive blasts, but the biggest killer in nuclear explosions is radiation (Bachelor ¶7-8). There are two types of nuclear weapons, atomic and hydrogen. Atomic weapons are powered by nuclear fission, the splitting of uranium or plutonium to create an explosion.
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Multiple times the United States and Russia were only seconds from a nuclear exchange during the Cold War from 1945-1991 (Bachelor ¶16). Denuclearization of North Korea has been a goal of the United States and South Korea for twenty-five years (Minnich ¶1). One of the first attempts was the Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula (JDD). In this declaration, North Korea and South Korea agreed to use nuclear energy for peaceful use only, but North Korea backed out (Minnich ¶20). Next, in October of 1994, the United States made a deal where North Korea was to shut down and disassemble its nuclear reactors and plutonium enrichment facilities to receive ten million pounds of heavy fuel oil and two light water reactors (Minnich ¶25). North Korea backed out during December of 2002. On April 4th, 2003, the United States, the People’s Republic of China, and North Korea held a meeting where North Korea agreed to end all nuclear activities permanently. Unfortunately, North Korea backed out when the New York Times leaked a memo about the United States teaming up with China to get rid of North Korea entirely (Minnich ¶31-32). The last attempt was agreed upon in February of 2007. The United States released funds for North Korea and North Korea shut down their nuclear plant (Minnich ¶37). This ended when the UN declined North Korea’s right to have a space