ABSTRACT
On March 12, 1993, North Korea first informed the world that it would be the first nation in history to withdraw (or attempt to withdraw) from the NPT supposedly through the treaty’s Article X provisions. 1 The DPRK claimed that recent, routine South Korean military exercises and a lack of objectivity of IAEA inspections threatened its state sovereignty and supreme national interests. It proceeded to attempt this withdrawal just a day before the three-month required notice under Article X. Then, after reactivating its nuclear facilities in December 2002, on January 10, 2003, North Korea again announced that it would officially withdraw from the NPT the following day. It claimed that the aggregate notice of the two withdrawal statements fulfilled the three-month required notice. 2
