#BSG Key provisions of agreement: economic engagement, denuclearization and verification were established in 2005 – Building Multi-Party Capacity for a WMD-Free Korea – Policy makers and scholars from the United States, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, and Australia explored options to facilitate and implement future agreements on such issues as security assur- ances, nuclear dismantlement and verification, and economic engagement with Pyongyang.

This same participant noted that capacity-building discussions within this context played a vital role in the 1980s during negotiations concerning the reduction of nuclear weapons. He stated, “In the mid 1980s, President Rea- gan and Soviet Premier Gorbachev explored the possibility of eliminating all of the nuclear weapons in the American and Soviet stockpiles. At that point, both American and Soviet technical experts argued that such a move would be highly destabilizing, and their arguments were based on analyses developed through joint studies and meetings over the preceding twenty years. Both leaders were thus able to tap into an existing base of knowledge developed through years of prior meetings and con- sultations.”

Devising an acceptable security assurance for North Korea is obviously a piv- otal issue in the current crisis, and workshop participants shared their ideas in a smaller breakout group regarding how a six-party organization can play a constructive role on this issue. One participant repeated his assertion made during the first session on what he believed were the necessary ingredients for a security assurance deemed acceptable by the North Koreans. “The North Koreans essentially make three demands on the United States when they ask for a security assurance: first, a pledge of ‘non-hostile’ intent and policies; second, mutual respect for state sovereignty; and third, non-interference in domestic political affairs. The North Koreans believe that the United States has already agreed to each of these requirements through joint statements that were issued in 1993 and 2000, and through the 1994 Agreed Framework. Today, the North Koreans want a senior American official, preferably Presi- dent Bush or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to publicly reaffirm these three principles. Furthermore, if there followed three months of tranquility, characterized by the absence of verbal sparring between the two countries, then I think the North Koreans would consider the totality of these actions as an acceptable security assurance.”

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