Why a North Korean nuclear deal is a poison pill that could end the Kim dynasty

Will North Korea get the Iran treatment? Don't count on it.

The Kim Dynasty
(Image credit: Illustration by Lauren Hansen | Image courtesy Gavin Hellier/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis)

This summer, the United States announced a historic agreement with Iran. The agreement largely dismantles Iran's nuclear program, which experts agree was designed to build an arsenal of nuclear bombs.

Optimists have looked at the deal and speculated North Korea could be next. In exchange for the lifting of sanctions and normalizing relations, North Korea would dismantle its own nuclear arsenal, they say. The incentives for such a poor country — with an economy a third the size of Ethiopia's — would be too great to resist.

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Kyle Mizokami is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Daily Beast, TheAtlantic.com, The Diplomat, and The National Interest. He lives in San Francisco.