Nuclear Weapons

Photo: This photo provided by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's government shows what it says a test launch of a hypersonic missile on Jan 11, 2022 in DPRK. (KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY / KOREA NEWS SERVICE VIA AP)

North Korea, Perpetual Victim of the US Military-Industrial Complex

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

The writer is a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. She is also the UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. www.warbeyondwar.org

NEW YORK (IDN) — It seems hard to believe that in these possible end times in the midst of a global pandemic with an endless succession of catastrophic climate disasters and thousands of nuclear weapons poised and pointed in the US and Russia, ready to destroy life on earth, we are beset by a bought, corrupted mainstream media that assaults us with the “wrongdoings” of Russia and China, and most recently North Korea, with barely a mention in their assaultive reporting of how the US might be a cause.

Photo: North Korean farmers in a field. Wikimedia Commons.

A Politically Isolated North Korea Garners Support from two Nuclear Powers at the UN

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — North Korea, long described as a “hermit kingdom”, apparently isn’t living in total political isolation or is cut off from the rest of the world.

Or so it seems, judging by the failure of the US and some of its UN allies to impose sanctions on five North Korean officials—sanctions really aimed at a country that continues to defy the West with its multiple ballistic nuclear tests.

Image: Nuclear weapon programmes worldwide. Wikimedia Commons.

Six Country Coalition Criticises the Modernisation of Nuclear Weapon Programmes

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — On the eve of the opening of the Tenth Review Conference* of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the five states recognized as possessors of such armament—China, United States, France, United Kingdom and Russia—issued a Joint Declaration recalling the affirmation by presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that “a nuclear war cannot be won a should never be fought”, adding that those weapons should serve defensive objectives, prevent aggression and avoid war.

Photo: Protest in Bonn, West Germany against the nuclear arms race between the U.S./NATO and the then Soviet Union. Wikimedia Commons.

Clarion Call for Policies to End the Nuclear Arms Race

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | PRAGUE (IDN) — On January 24, 1946, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus its very first resolution Resolution 1 (I), which established a commission of the UN Security Council to ensure "the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction". The Resolution is entitled "Establishment of a Commission to Deal with the Problems Raised by the Discovery of Atomic Energy".

'Veterans For Peace' Call for Taking Nuclear Arsenals Off Hair-Trigger Alert

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), issued by the U.S.-based international organization Veterans For Peace, warns that the danger of nuclear war is greater than ever and that nuclear disarmament must be vigorously pursued. NPR also calls for measures that would reduce the risk of nuclear war, such as implementing policies for No First Use and taking nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.

Image credit: Australian Institute of International Affairs

No (Nuclear) War Over Ukraine, Please

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — War over Ukraine? It mustn’t be. Some of us believed that at the end of the Cold War in 1991 American and Soviet nuclear rockets would be left to rust and rot in their silos. Indeed, we actually saw Ukraine, where the Soviets made most of their rockets and based many, (who says that Ukraine doesn’t have an umbilical relationship with Russia?), deciding to give up its nuclear armoury- for which the world should give more praise than it does.

Five Nuclear Powers Urged to Turn 'Nuke-Speak' into Real Action to Prevent Nuclear War

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) — Disarmament advocates working within the Global Council of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons have called on the five Nuclear-Weapon States Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to follow up the affirmation made by them in their Joint Statement of January 3, 2022, that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought". The Abolition 2000 has urged the United States, Russia, the UK, France and China to undertake "genuine action" to change current nuclear-war fighting policies, end the costly and destabilizing nuclear arms race, and eliminate nuclear weapons.

Image source: German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle

World's Major Nuclear Powers Pledge to Avoid Wars—Even as they Continue to Upgrade their Arsenals

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — When the world’s five major nuclear powers—the US, UK, China, France and Russia—pledged to prevent nuclear wars and abandon the pursuit of more weapons, their joint statement released January 3 explicitly left out several of the demands from anti-nuclear activists, including an end to the upgrading and enhancing of existing arsenals.

Photo: TPNW adopted on July 7, 2017. Credit: United Nations.

The NPT-5 Joint Statement—Cum grano salis

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — On January 3, the five nuclear-weapon states party to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) issued an important Joint Statement on “preventing nuclear war and avoiding arms races”. Those are certainly part of the objectives of the Treaty, as well as important for achieving another goal: the as yet unfulfilled promise of nuclear disarmament. Turning that obligation into reality is a primary responsibility of the states that developed and maintain nuclear arsenals capable of extinguishing human civilization.

Photo: The United Nations Security Council Chamber in New York, also known as the Norwegian Room. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

UN Chief Welcomes Nuclear-Weapon States' Pledge to Prevent Nuclear War

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) — The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the joint statement by the five nuclear-weapon States on the prevention of nuclear war and avoidance of arms races.

"The Secretary-General appreciates the recognition by the nuclear-weapon States of their need to comply with their bilateral and multilateral nonproliferation, disarmament, and arms control agreements and commitments, including their binding obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons related to nuclear disarmament," the UN Chief's spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.