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The 1994 Agreed Framework (Geneva Agreement)

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The 1994 Agreed Framework came towards the end of North Korea’s nuclear development and is often considered the United States’ last chance to halt the North’s nuclear program. In exchange for freezing its nuclear weapons program and submit to IAEA inspections, the US agreed to help North Korea resolve the “energy problems” ostensibly driving the North’s pursuit of nuclear energy, first by providing oil and later by constructing tamper-proof nuclear reactors. While the North did temporarily freeze plutonium production and the construction of two new reactors, both sides soon fell through on the deal. While it is difficult to know if North Korea ever truly ceased its operations, it did begin secretly enriching uranium shortly after the agreement and was caught out by intelligence officials under the Bush administration, which opted to void the agreement altogether rather than try to negotiate to save the deal.

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