09 October
2006 - Pyongyang, Korea, Democratic People's Republic
of — North Korea became the ninth nuclear power
at 10:35 local time (0135 GMT) on Monday when
it detonated an undergound nuclear test. Their
success is the world's failure.
By going nuclear, North Korea
has highlighted the weakness of the non-proliferation
treaty. Pyongyang has underscored the dangerous
connection between nuclear research, nuclear power
and nuclear weapons.
We're calling for a restrained
reaction from other countries, such as South Korea,
Japan and the United States, and a re-convening
of the six-party talks.
Nobody wants yet another country
to have a nuclear arsenal, but with over 5,000
nuclear weapons in the arsenal of the United States
of America, the relative balance of power has
to be kept in mind. It’s bad enough that North
Korea has tested a nuclear weapon, but it will
be worse if other countries don't talk to them.
How to become a nuclear weapons
state: step one, get nuclear power
The history of North Korea's
pursuit of the bomb is a cautionary tale about
the dual use of nuclear power and the failures
of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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 other 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.
And due to the widespread use of nuclear energy
about 40 other countries have access to nuclear
weapons material and therefore possess the ability
to develop nuclear weapons.
One arms control expert, Dr.
Jeffery Lewis published details online in August
of this year of the test site near Kilju/Kilchu.
His analysis of Google Earth Satellite imagery
of the site is available here (you'll need to
have Google Earth installed for that link to work).
A new Asian arms race?
North Korea's new nuclear capability threatens
to destabilize the entire region.
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, but
while the US and other nuclear powers are quick
to demand full compliance by the non-nuclear weapons
states, they've done little to fulfil their part
of the bargain: a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty and concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament.
A test ban treaty has been negotiated
but remains unratified by the US, China and Israel,
among others. The number of nuclear weapons in
the world today remains on par with the number
of weapons which existed when the Non-Proliferation
Treaty was negotiated in the 1960s.
