<Li> In December, IAEA Director - General Blix announces that the agency can no longer provide "any meaningful assurances" that North Korea is not producing nuclear weapons . </Li> <Li> 12 October 1994: the United States and North Korea signed the "Agreed Framework": North Korea agreed to freeze its plutonium production program in exchange for fuel oil, economic cooperation, and the construction of two modern light - water nuclear power plants . Eventually, North Korea's existing nuclear facilities were to be dismantled, and the spent reactor fuel taken out of the country . </Li> <Li> 26 October 1994: IAEA Chairman Hans Blix tells the British House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Select Committee the IAEA is "not very happy" with the Agreed Framework because it gives North Korea too much time to begin complying with the inspections regime . </Li> <Ul> <Li> 18 March 1996: Hans Blix tells the IAEA's Board of Governors North Korea has still not made its initial declaration of the amount of plutonium they possess, as required under the Agreed Framework, and warned that without the declaration IAEA would lose the ability to verify North Korea was not using its plutonium to develop weapons . </Li> <Li> October 1997: spent nuclear fuel rods were encased in steel containers, under IAEA inspection . </Li> <Li> 31 August 1998: North Korea launched a Paektusan - 1 space launch vehicle in a launch attempt of its Kwangmyŏngsŏng - 1 satellite . U.S. military analysts suspect satellite launch is a ruse for the testing of an ICBM . This missile flew over Japan causing the Japanese government to retract 1 billion in aid for two civilian light - water reactors . </Li> </Ul>

When did the north korean nuclear crisis start