V. I. DENISOV Doctor of Historical Sciences Korean nuclear crisis Keywords: six-party talks, North-East Asia, nuclear nonproliferation problem, Russia's position. UN Security Council For more than 65 years, the Korean problem - the problem of unification of the two states of the Korean Peninsula-has remained unresolved. The permanent tension on the peninsula is aggravated by the nuclear issue, which in recent years has become a serious destabilizing factor in Northeast Asia. Over the years, the Korean people have experienced a three-year bloody war in 1950-1953, dozens of dangerous escalations, including the crisis of 1968, when North Korea captured the American reconnaissance ship "Pueblo" and held its crew for almost a year. Periodically, fierce skirmishes occurred in the area of the 38th parallel, which divides the peninsula into two parts. In 2010 alone, two major incidents occurred between Pyongyang and Seoul - the sinking of the Republic of Korea (ROK) warship Cheonan, for which the South blamed the DPRK, and the shelling of the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong by the North Koreans. These events almost led to a military conflict between the Korean sides. The problem of nuclear proliferation in the region is particularly acute today. Without a political solution to the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula, the situation with the international nuclear non-proliferation regime as a whole may become very serious. BACK TO THE ISSUE HISTORY The problem of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on the peninsula arose in the early 1970s, when the South Korean administration of President Park Jong-hee began to develop its own nuclear weapons. Then Washington quite firmly opposed the acquisition of such weapons by the Republic of Korea. Seoul was forced to comply and stopped implementing the program. The DPRK at that time had an experimental nuclear reactor built with Soviet technical assistance and controlled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). After some t ... Читать далее