I have been covering the North Korean nuclear program from its beginning in 1956 to a new international agreement called the Leap Day Deal because it was signed on February 29th in 2012. There was great hope that this deal would lead to a final end to the N. K. nuclear threat. But, as happened so often in the past, that hope was not to be realized.
In April of 2012 N.K. announced another missile launch which was a clear violation of the Leap Day Deal. This launch coincided with the emergence of Kim Jong-Un, the son of the previous head of N.K., as the new leader of N.K. The launch may have been a symbolic act ordered by the new leader to demonstrate his elevation to leadership. The U.S. also suspected that N.K was getting ready to test another nuclear device. It became clear that N.K. was not taking the Leap Day Deal seriously and another round of hostility and recrimination broke out. In the fall of 2012, the U.S. and South Korea announced a new missile agreement and N.K. announced that it had nuclear missiles that could reach the U.S. mainland. In December of 2012, N.K. launched another satellite. The United Nations issued Security Council Resolution 2087 condemning the launch. In addition, trade sanctions against N.K. were expanded.
N.K. responded to the resolution and new sanctions by announcing that it would continue missile tests and work on nuclear weapons. In February of 2013, N.K tested another nuclear device. This unleashed what was referred to as the North Korean crisis. Kim Jong-un responded to Resolution 2087 with inflammatory rhetoric and threats to carry out nuclear attacks against South Korea, Japan and the U.S.
In March of 2013, during a military exercise involving the U.S. and S.K., N.K. withdrew from the Korean Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War in the 1953. They claimed that nuclear weapons were a part of the joint exercise and that the U.S. was unwilling to negotiate a peace treaty that would replace the KAA and denuclearize the Korean peninsula. The U.S. increased the number of antiballistic missiles in Alaska and California. The U.S. also announced intentions to deploy a new radar system to Japan to warn of N.K. missile launches. N.K. launched a cyberattack against S.K.s computers. U.S. B-52 bombers overflew S.K. to reaffirm the “U.S. nuclear umbrella” over S.K. Japan deployed destroyers equipped with missiles defense systems. In late March, N.K. cut the hotline between N.K. and S.K. and announced that a “state of war” now existed between N.K. and S.K. The situation on the Korean Peninsula was rapidly deteriorating.
Korean Peninsula:
