Even as the ostensible adults in the room, the two countries with both the largest nuclear capabilities and the terrible knowledge of what nuclear war would mean, the United States and Russia nearly came to it on several occasions just within the first decade after WW II. The nightmare scenario would have been of a “junior” country gaining a hold on one of the weapons and detonating in their war. This was what the nuclear non-proliferation treaty sought to prevent, but not every country was content to work under its restrictions. Especially North Korea.

On this day, March 12, 1993, amidst continual calls by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to display greater transparency, North Korea announced they were withdrawing from the nonproliferation treaty. They cited Article X provisions that allow withdrawal for supreme national security considerations.

The country had already kept IAEA inspectors at arms length, and the move just confirmed suspicions they were setting out to develop a nuclear weapon of their own. The tensions were finally diffused when former president Carter concluded a deal by which the U.S. would provide the DPRK with energy in exchange for a freeze on the nuclear program. That agreement lasted until 2003, when North Korea withdrew from the NPT for good.