Letters to the Editor
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"The Land of Lousy Options"
Given the nature of the North Korean government, just about any policy designed to keep it from going nuclear was likely to fail. As I heard someone describe it, North Korea is the "Land of Lousy Options."
Clinton's Agreed Framework was never strong enough to prevent North Korea from cheating. It did however put us in a better position than we would have been without it.
In the absence of the Agreed Framework, North Korea would have had the bomb a long time ago. Indeed, the abrogation of the Agreed Framework is the only reason why North Korea has the bomb now.
The Agreed Framework froze North Korea's stockpiles of Plutonium and placed them under the control of inspectors. Plutonium is the quickest and easiest path to a nuclear weapon. Without access to his plutonium, if Kim Jong Il wanted to acquire a nuclear weapon (and he did), the only available option was through the production of enriched uranium. The production of enriched uranium is a massive and expensive industrial undertaking -- a path to a bomb that is difficult, expensive, and hard to conceal. Clinton's Agreed Framework was successful insofar as it moved North Korea off of the fast track to a nuclear weapon and onto the slow track.
If the Agreed Framework were still in place, North Korea would still be a long way from having a bomb. Indeed, when the Agreed Framework broke down (with a shove from the Bush Administration), Kim Jong Il immediately kicked out the inspectors and moved his plutonium stockpile to a place where we could never find it and went back to the production of a plutonium-based nuclear weapon. It only took him three years.
Clinton's Agreed Framework was successful in that it bought us time and the possibility that events over which we have no control would stop North Korea's march towards a nuclear state. Time isn't much but, in the Land of Lousy Options it was the best option available.