As global leaders converge on Washington for Thursday’s nuclear security summit, one enduring question is casting a shadow over the discussions: can anything now prevent North Korea from becoming a full-fledged nuclear state?
While the summit’s official agenda focuses heavily on preventing nuclear material falling into the hands of terrorists, the Pyongyang regime will be the main focus when Barack Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping of China and a trilateral with Shinzo Abe of Japan and South Korea’s Park Geun-hye.
The gathering comes as toughened UN sanctions, along with independent measures from the US, Japan and South Korea, are set to tighten the screws on the North’s economy. But with China at odds with the other powers over interpretation of the sanctions, experts believe they are no killer blow. In fact, they say that rather than forcing Kim Jong Un to give up nuclear weapons, the measures are more likely to accelerate the regime’s nuclear programme.