Non-aggression pact

For the music band see: Non-aggression Pact (band)

A non-aggression pact is an international treaty between two or more states agreeing to avoid war or armed conflict between them and resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiations. Sometimes such a pact may include a pledge of avoiding armed conflict even if participants find themselves fighting third countries, including allies of one of the participants.

It was a popular form of international agreement in the 1920s and 1930s, but has largely fallen out of use after the Second World War. The most famous is the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, which lasted until the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Examples of such pacts in history:

• Peace of Callias 450 BC
• Treaty of London (1518)
• Soviet-Polish non-aggression pact
• German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact
• German–Estonian Non-Aggression Pact
• German–Latvian Non-Aggression Pact
• Soviet-French non-aggression pact
• Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 1939
• Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact

During negotiations between the United States and North Korea in 2003, North Korea offered to eventually eliminate its nuclear weapons program if both sides signed a non-aggression treaty (along with multiple other conditions). As of this date, however, a nonaggression treaty between the two has yet to be formulated.

See also

• U.S.-North Korea relations