It’s doubtful North Korea would ever agree to give up its nuclear weapons, for a simple reason. The enormous military power that the United States possesses, the ideological divide between North Korea and the United States, the extensive nature of U.S. interests in Asia, and the U.S. track record of regime change around the world mean that the United States will always pose a military threat to North Korea. As long as this is the case, North Korea will continue to see its nuclear weapons as crucial to deterring that threat. Seeking to prevent further nuclear tests (in particular, preventing an atmospheric nuclear test), restricting growth in the number and variety of North Korean nuclear weapons and delivery systems, and limiting the amount of weapons-usable nuclear material North Korea produces remain achievable. Any crisis between the United States and North Korea would face all these risks, compounded by North Korea’s relative inexperience with nuclear weapons and the incentives that both sides have to use nuclear weapons first in a crisis.

Source: Washington Post March 09, 2018 12:33 UTC