Nuclear Weapons

Photo: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the Security Council on non-proliferation / DPRK. UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Security Council Highlights DPRK's Humanitarian Needs, Agrees on Importance of Communication Channels

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - While expressing his profound concern over the risk of military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, "including as a result of miscalculation," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has stressed the need to disassociate the peace and security situation in the DPRK (North Korea) from the humanitarian needs in the country.

Seventy per cent of the country’s population is affected by food insecurity and 40 per cent are malnourished and some $114 million is needed to meet urgent requirements. However, the 2017 DPRK Humanitarian Needs and Priorities appeal is only 30 per cent funded, he told the Security Council on December 15.

Photo: Setsuko Thurlow delivering her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. Credit. Norwegian Nobel Committee.

'Listen To Our Testimony. Heed Our Warning'

By Setsuko Thurlow

Setsuko Thurlow is a Japanese-Canadian nuclear disarmament campaigner who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. She is a leading figure in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Thurlow accepted the prize on behalf of the campaign at a ceremony in Oslo on 10 December 2017, together with Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of ICAN. Following are extensive excerpts from her Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech. – The Editor

OSLO (IDN) – It is a great privilege to accept this award, together with Beatrice, on behalf of all the remarkable human beings who form the ICAN movement. You each give me such tremendous hope that we can – and will – bring the era of nuclear weapons to an end.

Photo: A meeting of the IPNDV in session. Credit: IPNDV

Monitoring Dismantlement Key to Eliminating Nuclear Weapons

By Jamshed Baruah

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the United Nations General Assembly adopted on July 7, 2017 the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, urging the prohibition and complete elimination of the atomic arsenal, the question of verification and the dismantlement of nuclear weapons has acquired particular importance. Because there are several areas where adequate technologies either need to be developed or re-engineered.

Over the past four decades, the United States and the Soviet Union as well as its successor the Russian Federation have used a series of bilateral agreements and other measures to limit and reduce their substantial nuclear warhead and strategic missile and bomber arsenals.

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addresses reporters during a joint statement to the media with European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, in Brussels, Belgium on December 5, 2017. [State Department Photo/ Public Domain]

Iran Deal 'Key Strategic Priority' for Global Security, Mogherini Tells Tillerson

By Kelsey Davenport

Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association. This article was first published in their blog with the caption 'Tillerson, Mogherini Meet Ahead of Key JCPOA Deadlines'. – The Editor

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini reiterated to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the EU would work with the United States to address shared issues related to Iran, "on the basis of continued U.S. implementation of the nuclear deal" and outside of the agreement itself.

Mogherini and Tillerson discussed the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) during a Dec. 5 bilateral meeting in Brussels.

Photo: ICAN, represented by Setsuko Thurlow and Beatrice Fihn, receives the Nobel Peace Prize Medal and Diploma from Berit Reiss-Andersen of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, during the award ceremony in Oslo. Copyright: Nobel Media AB 2017.

Nobel Peace Prize for ICAN Puts Pressure on Norway to Sign the UN Treaty

By Nina Berglund

The writer is editor and publisher of Norway's news site, newsinenglish.no. This report, which originally appeared with the headline Peace Prize puts squeeze on Norway, is being reproduced courtesy of the news site. – The Editor

OSLO (IDN-INPS) - Nobel Peace Prize Day in Oslo dawned with clear and sunny skies on Sunday, but not everyone was celebrating. The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award this year’s Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) challenges Norwegian leaders to finally support a ban themselves, and now pressure is building on them to do so.

The Peace Prize to ICAN thrust the prize’s own home country into a difficult, even embarrassing, position. Norway, in line with its NATO allies and other nuclear powers, have refused to support or sign a UN treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons that was adopted by 122 other nations last summer. Critics called that shameful.

If You Love This Planet - By Setsuko Thurlow

Photo: People in Pyongyang watch Kim Jong-un on North Korean TV, 2015. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

No More Bluster, A Way Out of North Korean Nuclear Crisis

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - When, soon after the election, President Barack Obama invited Donald Trump to the White House we didn't learn much about their conversation. But we were briefed on one thing: Obama had told Trump that North Korea would be the most pressing and difficult issue on his agenda.

How right that was. But the Americans have missed the boat. It's as simple as that. What’s done is done. While Washington has dithered and dithered through three successive presidencies, missing opportunity after opportunity, North Korea has gone from zero nuclear weapons to an arsenal of at least 20. Its test of an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile, in the early hours of November 29, is said to be capable of striking the U.S. It doesn't have a nuclear tip yet but that will come sometime in the next two or three years.

Photo: Participants in the conference 'prevent' a nuclear missile from being launched from Charles University in Prague. Credit: UNFOLD ZERO

Youth Pleads with World Leaders to Reduce Risk of Nuclear War

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN | UNFOLD ZERO) – Amid menacing tensions between the United States and North Korea in the aftermath of Pyongyang testing a long-range missile that is potentially capable of hitting the entire mainland U.S., young academics and activists from around the world are asking world leaders to reduce the risks of nuclear weapons being deployed and to support United Nations initiatives for nuclear disarmament, including the High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament to take place in 2018.

The appeal – Reach High for a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World – was issued at the conclusion of a three-day conference (November 27-29) in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. It was organised by the Youth Network of Abolition 2000, a global civil society network to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Photo: Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., asks about the president's nuclear authority at November 14 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Credit: PBS Newshour

Reducing the Risk of Nuclear Miscalculation

By Daryl G. Kimball

Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared with the caption 'Step Back From the Nuclear Brink'.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) - Over the past year, cavalier and reckless statements from President Donald Trump about nuclear weapons and his threat to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea have heightened fears about Cold War-era policies and procedures that put the authority to launch nuclear weapons in his hands alone.

Partially in response, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for the first time since 1976, held a hearing on the “executive’s authority to use nuclear weapons.” The November 14 hearing should be just the start of a process that leads to changes that reduce the risk of nuclear miscalculation and establishes that the United States will not be the first to use nuclear weapons.

Photo source: Mother Jones. Bryce Vickmark/ZUMA; RomoloTavani/iStock; photoillustration by Ivylise Simones.

Decode Trump To Halt His Access To U.S. Nuclear Codes

Viewpoint by David Krieger*

SANTA BARBARA | USA (IDN-INPS) - The future of the world and of humanity is at the mercy of a lunatic. His name is Donald Trump, and he alone has access to the U.S. nuclear codes. Before he does something rash and irreversible with those codes, it is imperative to decode Donald, taking the necessary steps to remove this power from him.

Trump tweeted on December 16, 2016: "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes."

What good would a greatly strengthened and expanded nuclear capability do for the U.S.? We can already end civilization and most life on the planet with the use of our nuclear arsenal. The U.S. has nearly 7,000 nuclear weapons, with more than 1,500 of them deployed and ready for use.