07 October
2006 - International — Today is the 9th Anniversary
of Kim Jong-il as North Korean leader. We think
that the best way to celebrate nine years as the
leader of a country which has not detonated a
nuclear weapon is to try and stretch that to ten:
the world needs fewer nuclear powers, not more.
The history of North Korea's
pursuit of the bomb is a cautionary tale about
the dual use of nuclear power. The country was
given reactor technology and expertise by several
countries, had made the mandatory promises to
use that power for energy, not weapons, and until
a few years ago allowed inspectors to verify it
was so.
The next time someone tells
you that nuclear power is "clean and safe"
ask them how North Korea was able to convert their
reactors into bomb factories.
From Atoms for Peace to atomic
weapons
North Korea was suspected of
pursuing an active weapons program up to 1994,
when it signed an agreement with the US to freeze
all activities.
Then in December 2002 it restarted its nuclear
reactor at Yongbyon. Monitors from the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were expelled, and
in January 2003, North Korea declared its withdrawal
from the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In mid-2003 Pyongyang announced
it had completed the reprocessing of spent nuclear
fuel rods to extract weapons-grade plutonium and
was developing a "nuclear deterrent."
By early 2005 North Korea announced
it had produced nuclear weapons, but it has not,
to date, conducted a test detonation.
Seven nations have demonstrated
their nuclear capabilities: The US, The Russian
Federation, the UK, France, China, India, and
Pakistan. Israel is known to have nuclear weapons
but has never admitted as much, and never claimed
responsibility for an explosive nuclear test.
A new Asian arms race?
If North Korea does test a nuclear
weapon, it threatens to destabilize the entire
region. Tensions on the Korean Peninsular will
rise, and a new nuclear arms race could start
in South East Asia.
South Korea has expressed an
interest in obtaining stockpiles of plutonium
similar to those in Japan, where one of the world's
largest repositories of nuclear weapons material
sits side-by-side with some of the world's most
advanced missile technology.
The nuclear club ought to be
getting smaller, and it would be if the nuclear
weapons states were to live up to their commitments
to rid the world of nuclear weapons. That was
the deal of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"Rather than testing a
nuclear weapon, Kim Jong-il should celebrate the
occasion by taking a step towards a nuclear free
world," says Steve Shallhorn, Executive Director
of Greenpeace Australia Pacific. “As long as some
countries have nuclear weapons other countries
will inevitably seek to achieve them. Not only
should North Korea refrain from this test and
renounce its nuclear weapons programme, so should
each and every one of the other nuclear weapons
states.”
As Kim Jong-il celebrates, we're
urging him to forego the nuclear fireworks.
