The Story of Technology: How We Got Here and What the Future Holds

by Daniel M. Gerstein

With the Soviets in Afghanistan and the United States needing a base of operations in close proximity, the United States placed support to Afghanistan ahead of nonproliferation policy. By then, Pakistan was well on its way to developing nuclear weapons, but Carter’s lifting of sanctions and $400 million in economic and military aid likely shortened the timelines for developing a nuclear capability.52 North Korea was aided in the development of a nuclear capability by A. Q. Khan. Based on this assistance, North Korea developed nuclear production facilities in the 1990s. Through the 1994 Agreed Framework, North Korea agreed to provide a complete history of its nuclear activities, mothball the nuclear production facilities, and refrain from reprocessing its spent nuclear fuel rods. However, simultaneously, North Korea began a covert reprocessing effort. Despite repeated overtures and direct pressure to cause North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program, continued testing occurred in 2006, 2013, 2016, and 2017. North Korea’s last test was thought to be a hydrogen weapon, estimated by some to have a yield of up to 250 kilotons.