[LETTER TO THE EDITOR]U.S. should have provided reactors for the North

I am a 10th grader at Seoul International School. I would like to express my opinions in response to the article you wrote in the Opinion/Perspective section of the JoongAng Daily, titled “Reactor issue needs resolution.”
As I read this article, I was very gratified to know that someone out there openly acknowledged the unsolved issue of the light-water nuclear reactors. I have been very closely following the events of the North Korean nuclear issue and the six-party talks for the last few months, and my research has led to the question, “well, what about the light-water nuclear reactors?”
Why did America not keep its promise according to the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework to supply two nuclear reactors to Pyongyang in return for the dismantling of the North’s graphite reactors? Is it that I have not done my homework properly, or did nobody mention the light-water nuclear reactors and decide to quietly scrap the idea?
The main issue of the 6-party talks was that the United States would not allow North Korea to maintain a civilian nuclear-energy program. However, I do not think that the U.S. should demand such harsh measures from the North, when the U.S. itself has not kept its promise to supply the two light-water nuclear reactors according to the agreement that Washington and Pyongyang made in 1994. I don’t think the North is working on its nuclear program so they can bomb people. I think that the North is doing this to have greater leverage in gaining supplies of food, power, and other economic resources that it lacks.
I feel that it is mainly America’s fault for not keeping its promises and aggressively accusing the North, as if America has something to be proud about.

by Heeje Yoo