The six nations reached an agreement in September 2005, creating a framework for gradually reducing the North's arsenal, while normalizing its relations with Japan,the United States, and South Korea.Since then,however, North Korea has conducted two nuclear weapons tests.
VOA: standard.2009.12.11
For a while, it appeared that SouthKorea was making a go of it when it came to stem cells and cloning, but then it turned out that one of its leading researchers, Hwang Woo Suk, had faked results.
Federal funding for university research also has been shrinking, adjusted for inflation, while such funding in other countries like China, Japan and SouthKorea has grown.