Abstract

With its six nuclear tests, North Korea aims to be regarded as a nuclear power by international society. However, such a status has been denied to North Korea, especially after its fourth and fifth nuclear tests in 2016 and the sixth in 2017. North Korea's international isolation has been strengthened with the UN Security Council resolutions, and the tensions in the relations between North and South Korea and between North Korea and the U.S. have been heightened. The problem of North Korea's nuclear weapons is both political and ethical one. There are four political and ethical approaches to nuclear weapons: nuclear maximalism, nuclear minimalism, nuclear reductionism, and anti-nuclearism. A nuclear maximalist approach to North Korean nuclear weapons may cause a second Korean War, and a nuclear minimalist approach to them also has the danger to increase and escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, either a nuclear reductionist approach or an anti-nuclearism approach to the problem of North Korean nuclear weapons is more desirable. Three models of denuclearization can be helpful in achieving the North Korean denuclearization: Ukraine model, South African model, and Libya model. Each model can provide its own lessons and implications. Especially, considering the importance and significance of the Budapest Memorandum in the process of the Ukraine model, an East Asian version of Budapest Memorandum is needed for the successful North Korean denuclearization.