North Korean Crisis
...S west coast.” (The North Korean crisis 2003: video) Due to this alarming threat, North Korea should be disarmed and all nuclear weapons should be taken and disposed of, to ensure the safety of the global community. The North Korean regime is brutally repressive, it selectively deprives it citizens of their basic human needs. The regime spends vast sums of money on munitions including nuclear weapons, depriving its people of housing, clothing, food and education. Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "North Korea has to make a choice as to whether it will move forward and try to provide a better life for its people or waste what limited resources it has in developing weapons of mass destruction that will not feed one North Korean child," (The North Korean Crisis 2003: video). Therefore the North Korean nuclear weapons program should be terminated, and funds should be redirected to more constructive causes. North Korea has violated international treaties of the supply of oil in exchange for not developing nuclear weapons. The Agreed Framework, signed by the Clinton administration in October 1994, called for freezing North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for a promise by the United States to build two civilian nuclear power plants for generating electricity in North Korea and supply it with fuel oil until the plants were completed. At the time, the deal served to avert a crisis that brought the Korean Peninsula to the brink of nuclear war. The United States now pays for the oil, costing about $100 million each year, and South Korea and Japan are to pay about $4.5 billion to build the new power plants. Despite what the Bush administration has deemed a "material breach" of the Agreed Framework, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has declined to say the accord was now null and void. "North Korea is in serious violation of that framework, and we're consulting with others about what the appropriate steps might be for us to take if North Korea does not eliminate this program in a verifiable manner," (Tracinski 2003: Internet) Mr. Boucher said. The North Korean regime has engaged in international hostile activities such as sending spy ships into Japanese waters. Japanese ships chased and fired warning shots at two suspected spy ships that intruded into Japan's waters. The suspected spy ships were disguised as Japanese fishing vessels, they bore Japanese names. They had had a wide array of suspicious antennas on their masts and no visible fishing gear, no fishing nets, and no national flags. The two ships, first spotted early Tuesday, March 23, 1999 were pursued through Japanese waters for about 24 hours by the coast guard and navy destroyers, firing more than 22 warning shots. It was Japan's first such use of military ships since World War II. Japanese aircraft also dropped 18 small warning bombs to deter the activities of these suspected North Korean intelligence-gathering ships (AGI's). The suspected spy ships fled towards North Korea and the pursuit was called off when Japanese ...