NKIDP and North Korea's Nuclear History

The North Korea International Documentation Project (NKIDP) was launched by the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars's History and Public Policy Program and supported by the Korea Foundation and other donors.

In cooperation with the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul and an international network of researchers, the NKIDP provides access to original and translated archival documents on North Korea, and among other things, publishes a working paper series, as well as holds conferences and workshops both at the Wilson Center and throughout Asia.

One such working paper was by scholar Balasz Szalontai and Sergey Radchenko who utilized Russian and Hungarian archival materials to chronicle North Korean efforts to acquire nuclear technology. Such efforts were said to have begun in the 1950s with North and South Korea each vying for an edge in its nuclear research.

As Szalontai wrote: "From the 1950s on, both superpowers found it politically useful to give nuclear technology to their Third World allies in order to demonstrate their technological superiority and political generosity."

The documents also revealed that in the early 1960s, as North Korea was constructing its nuclear reactors, it became inspired by the model of nuclear self-reliance exhibited by China and the various nuclear power plants then emerging in Eastern Europe. And despite Moscow's distrust of Pyongyang following the Sino-Soviet split, documents also revealed that Soviet participation in North Korea's nuclear program only intensified.

As NKIDP coordinator James Person (my ex-classmate - hi James!) pointed out, Chinese archives revealed North Korea's "profound sense of mistrust and betrayal toward allies and foes alike. The harsh lesson learned after Soviet and Chinese interventions in internal North Korean party affairs, outright Soviet distrust of Pyongyang (which Moscow perceived as Beijing's proxy) during the Sino-Soviet split, and the Soviet refusal to provide Pyongyang with nuclear technology, have probably led the North Koreans to believe only they can guarantee their own security."