Commentary

The American Record on Nuclear

Non-Proliferation

The Bush administration has asked the UN Security Council to deliberate on an alleged violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). North Korea withdrew from the treaty last fall as part of its decision to re-start its nuclear energy program. Despite repeated U.S. claims to the contrary, North Korea has stated that it neither possesses nuclear weapons, nor intends to produce them.

The NPT is an international treaty designed to halt the spread of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear nations and to encourage the destruction of nuclear weapons stockpiles by those nations which already possess nuclear weapons. In actual practice, it has done neither.

The main violator of the NPT over the years has been the United States itself. During the 1970s, the U.S. provided Israel with both nuclear technology and huge amounts of plutonium to enable it to build scores of nuclear weapons. Through Israel, the United States also assisted South Africa to acquire nuclear weapons. In addition, the U.S. has stationed its nuclear missiles in numerous countries around the world, including an estimated 1,000 nuclear warheads in South Korea.

Since George W. Bush came to power in 2000, the United States has essentially scrapped all of its multilateral treaty obligations, including its obligations to the NPT. It has begun research and development of the Missile Defence System, which violates various international treaties. It has also begun development of space-based weapons of mass destruction in violation of international law. In addition, the U.S. is apparently developing entirely new forms of nuclear weapons, such as nuclear "bunker-busters". This, too, is a violation of the NPT.

By contrast, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has done nothing to violate the NPT. In fact, under the terms of the NPT, North Korea has the right to develop nuclear weapons if it is threatened with a nuclear attack by another country. Not only does the U.S. continue to maintain a nuclear arsenal in South Korea, but U.S. President George W. Bush has stated on more than one occasion that the U.S. is preparing for a pre-emptive nuclear strike against North Korea. The decision of the DPRK to withdraw from the NPT was, therefore, not because it intended to violate its provisions, but rather because the NPT and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been used by the United States to spy on North Korean nuclear energy facilities. Since the Bush administration is openly discussing bombing North Korea's nuclear power plants, the North Koreans would be foolish to allow U.S. spies to pinpoint targets for the an American attack.

Since the American destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons in 1945, the world's people have been demanding the total elimination of nuclear weapons. However, to date, all international efforts to accomplish that goal have failed, not as a result of the spread of nuclear weapons by small nations or terrorist groups, but because the big nuclear powers refuse to give up their monopoly on such weapons of terror. The various international treaties and agencies established to eliminate nuclear weapons have completely failed to do so and have become tools of the big powers to maintain their monopoly and/or to supply nuclear weapons to their allies.