Proponents say Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty must be strengthened to counter North Korean challenges
North Korea’s commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is expected to be a key issue for discussion at next week’s 2018 Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.
« The United States remains committed to a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea, » said Robert Wood, U. S. ambassador and permanent representative to the conference on disarmament.
« We will be looking at this preparatory meeting to continue to put pressure on North Korea to fulfill its obligations, » he added.
But that will be difficult to do within the context of the meeting as North Korea opted out of the NPT in 2003, the first state ever to withdraw from the treaty.
Next week’s meeting in Geneva, which runs from April 23 to May 4, is the second of three planned sessions to be held prior to a 2020 review conference on the treaty.
The five nuclear weapons nations — the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France — are among 191 countries that have joined the NPT, which came into force in 1970.
« It has been one of the most successful treaties in human history, » Wood said.
International unity
However, he agreed that the failure of four other countries that have or are believed to possess nuclear weapons — India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — to join the treaty is of concern.
He warned that the international security environment is rapidly deteriorating and the challenges posed by North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs made it critical for parties « to come together to strengthen the treaty. »
He acknowledged that strong divisions in the disarmament community are problematic.
« The conditions right now are not ripe for nuclear disarmament, but as a community, we need to work together to create those conditions, » he said.
