Historic Breakthrough as North Korea Agrees to Halt Nuclear Activities

Huge diplomatic breakthroughs have seen North Korea agree to halt all nuclear activities and to rejoin the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The announcement comes after the US stated that it had no intention of attacking the north in addition to promising aid and electricity.
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The compromise has come during a fourth round of six-nation talks in Beijing targeted at bringing an end to the continued standoff over the issue of nuclear weapons in North Korea.

The historic agreement saw all six parties sign up to the agreement, and also agree to meet again in two months time in November.

According to the BBC, China's vice foreign minister, Wu Dawei said, “This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago.”

However, it is rumoured that although the statement appears to be a significant step forward, it is thought that there may be many difficulties in implementing the agreement. For example one issue that has still not been finalised in talks is on North Korea’s demand that it be given a civilian light-water nuclear reactor to generate electricity. The US has refused to negotiate this at all so far, but today’s statement agreed that the issue could be something that comes into fruition in the future.

The joint statement also involved the other five nations involved in the talks - China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US – stating that they would help to provide energy assistance to North Korea, as well as promoting "economic co-operation in the fields of energy, trade and investment".

Earlier this year in July talks were also held, at which time persecution watchdogs urged delegates to include discussions over alleged human rights and religious freedom violations. Open Doors, which releases an annual list of 50 countries where Christians suffer the worst persecution, has ranked North Korea at the top for three straight years. According to the ministry, Christianity is observed as “one of the greatest threats to the regime’s power.”
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It is believed that tens of thousands of Christians are currently suffering in North Korean prison camps, where they face cruel abuses. According to estimates received by Italy-based AsiaNews, there are about 12,000 Protestant Christians and 4,000 Catholic Christians out of a total population of 24 million in North Korea. It is said that since communists took over the government in 1953, some 300,000 Christians have disappeared and there are no longer priests or nuns in the country, all likely killed during times of persecution. North Korea is suspected of detaining more political and religious prisoners than any other country in the world.

One North Korean Christian who was arrested recently because he frequently went to China and returned to North Korea shared his story with Open Doors.

“I experienced life in prison twice and I was also brought to a labour camp once,” he said. “I stayed there for three months until, with the help of another Christian, I was released. I had to labour for 18 hours a day in the most terrible circumstances.”

According to the believer, the leaders of the camp only provided meals two times a day, each time a cup with 90 pieces of boiled corn.
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“I almost died of starvation and the unbearable, heavy work,” he continued. “Most of the prisoners were full of hatred and complained all day, but the Christians prayed and prayed, even though they were beaten terribly and were treated worse than others.”

He spoke of one Christian woman who was “martyred terribly.”

“They beat her over and over again since she didn’t want to stop praying,” he told Open Doors. “She died peacefully while praying to her Lord.”

On the same day that Open Doors released its statement, over 100 human rights, social, academic, and religious groups also issued a joint statement cautioning against the oversight of "inhuman" abuses by North Korea against its own people.

"More needs to be done by the international community to ameliorate the human rights crisis in North Korea and the threats to the world order that its regime poses," the statement read.

The coalition of human rights groups accused the North Korean government of human rights violations, including intentional starvation, kidnapping, forcible separation of families, religious persecution, and trafficking in women and children, in addition to charges that the government uses gas chambers in the possible practice of genocide.

“North Korea is the most repressive nation in the world,” Moeller stated. “It certainly deserves its shameful ranking on the World Watch List.”

“It breaks my heart to hear some of the atrocities against Christians inside the country,” he added.

The long nuclear dispute began in 2002, when the US accused North Korea of violating a nuclear arms programme in international agreements. North Korea denied this and immediately withdrew from the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Before today’s breakthrough, three previous rounds of negotiations failed to resolve the issue, and tensions had increased as the US and North Korea's positions looked increasingly unyielding.