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Source: Getty

Other

Probabilistic Verification: A New Concept for Verifying the Denuclearization of North Korea

Implementing an agreement on the denuclearization of North Korea will require a creatively designed verification scheme. The probabilistic approach to verification could be a solution to the need to design a credible, implementable agreement to which the United States and North Korea could agree.

Link Copied
By Mareena Robinson Snowden
Published on Sep 17, 2019

Source: Arms Control Today

Although U.S.-North Korean talks have stalled, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has abided by an apparent moratorium on nuclear testing, keeping alive hopes that an agreement can be reached to denuclearize North Korea. Implementing such an agreement with North Korea, if one can be negotiated, would constitute an unprecedented challenge for the international community.

Verifying such an agreement would require building a monitoring regime that goes well beyond traditional international safeguards and bilateral arms control approaches while accommodating legitimate North Korean concerns over intrusiveness, which would practically preclude “anytime, anywhere” inspections. Creativity will be needed to design a verification scheme to which the United States and North Korea could agree and that could be implemented in affordable and practical ways and that politicians would deem credible.

Read Full Text

The full version of this article is available in the September 2019 edition of Arms Control Today.

About the Author

Mareena Robinson Snowden

Former Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow, Nuclear Policy Program

Mareena Robinson Snowden was a Stanton nuclear security fellow with the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Mareena Robinson Snowden
Former Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow, Nuclear Policy Program
Nuclear PolicyArms ControlEast AsiaNorth Korea

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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