The North Korean nuclear crisis began in 1993 when North Korea announced its withdrawal from the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty NPT, The issue appeared to subside in 1994 when the United States and North Korea signed «the Agreed Framework between the United States of America and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Agreed Framework» in Geneva. However, it resurfaced as the agreed Framework was abandoned in 2002 when North Korea lifted its freeze of plutonium facilities amidst allegations of enriching uranium.
The Six-Party Talks began between the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia to find a diplomatic solution to the issue. There were some agreements, including the 2005 September 19 Joint Statement and the 2007 February 13 and October 3 Agreements. Despite the progress, the Six-Party Talks have been halted since December 2008 after North Korea began refusing to implement each agreement. Throughout the dialogue, North Korea publicly stated its aim to realize a «strong and prosperous country» through nuclear armament and conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. Following the breakdown of the Six- Party Talks, North Korea continued to develop its nuclear program and conducted its second nuclear test in 2009.
North Korea heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula once again in 2010 conducting the attack against ROK warship Cheonan in March and shelling Yeonpyeong Island in November. In 2012, the United States and North Korea reached the «Leap Day Agreement» through bilateral talks, in which North Korea promised the cessation of nuclear development and missile launches. However, on April 13th, the «Leap Day Agreement» was rendered null when North Korea launched long-range missiles and explicitly proclaimed its status as a nuclear power in the preamble of its constitution.
Subsequently, North Korea conducted nuclear tests in February of 2013 January and September 2016, and September 2017. In addition, to formalize its status as a nuclear power despite strong opposition from the international community, North Korea took various measures such as «declaring its permanent position as a nuclear weapons state» in March 2013, adopting the «parallel development policy of economy and nuclear weapons,» enacting the «law consolidating the position of a nuclear weapons state for self-defense» in April, incorporating the dual policy into the Party Charter of the Workers’ Party of Korea in 2016, and codifying into law its «policy of the nation’s nuclear forces» in September 2022.
Despite three inter-Korean summits in 2018 and the North Korea-US summit in Singapore, denuclearization has fallen into a prolonged stalemate since the breakdown of the North Korea-US summit in Hanoi in 2019. North Korea hascontinued to engage in provocations since. In January 2021, Kim Jong-un declared a «struggle for the enhancement of nuclear capabilities» and emphasized the completion of «miniaturized, lightened, and standardized tactical nuclear weapons,» as well as the production of «more powerful nuclear warheads» and the development of «advanced tactical nuclear weapons» to advance its first- and second strike capabilities. Particularly in 2022, North Korea escalated tensions in an unprecedented manner, launching a total of 71 ballistic missiles, including 8 intercontinental ballistic missiles ICBMs.