The UN Security Council has issued a series of sanctions against North Korea’s nuclear program, including Resolution 1695, Resolution 1718, Resolution 1874, and Resolution 2087. The Six-Party Talks between North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, and the United States began in 2003 with the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. However, these talks have been suspended since April 2009. Tensions have continued to rise since North Korea torpedoed the South Korean naval ship, the Cheonan, and shelled the island of Yeonpyeong in 2010. North Korea possesses full nuclear fuel cycle capabilities, including a presumed basic capability to enrich uranium, although the functionality of its centrifuges has not yet been substantiated to the outside world. North Korea is building a small light water reactor (LWR) at Yongbyon, which will be fueled by the enriched uranium after it is completed. [1]

This includes an estimated 900 strategic warheads and 180 nonstrategic warheads deployed in Europe, as well as approximately 800 delivery systems (i.e., intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and strategic bombers). [2]

President Barack Obama declared in his 2009 Prague address that because of its central role in nuclear weapons development, the United States has a «moral responsibility» to lead global efforts seeking «the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.» [3] The United States was a driving force behind the negotiation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), as well as most other major arms control and nonproliferation treaties and regimes. Under the terms of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia, signed in April 2010, the United States will reduce its strategic nuclear arsenal to 1,550 operational warheadsdeployed on 700 delivery vehicles by February 2018. Although the Obama administration remains committed to advancing the goal of nuclear disarmament as declared in Prague, and in accordance with U.S. NPT commitments, the path to U.S. and global nuclear disarmament is neither linear nor certain.