With a recent underground nuclear test North Korea has joined the nuclear club as its ninth member. Some Western political sources attempted to downplay the magnitude of the test, as North Korea has not yet provided the details of its tests and the potential of its experiment. The “Hermetic Kingdom” is under the threat of sanctions.
The stand adopted by China and Russia, the two Security Council members with veto power is a major factor that encouraged North Korea to go for a nuclear arsenal though the country has serious economic problems. It is a poor country that requires continuous economic assistance to feed its fast growing population.
During its early industrial boom decades ago North Korea attempted to make use of its achievements in technological fields to develop peaceful nuclear technology and the ballistic missile industry which became one of its major economic resources. However the US was deadly against the Korean ambition and named it a rogue state along with Iraq and Iran. All US efforts to bring North Korea under the US control including its nuclear programs for peaceful purpose failed. The US move was a clear violation of the guarantees the nonnuclear countries enjoyed under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
The NPT has not yet won universal acceptance. Several countries still refuse to sign the treaty that has been extended without any time limit. The insistence of the five major nuclear powers to deny other countries the benefits of the peaceful applications of the nuclear technology has made several countries question the treaty. Most of the signatories want a re-examination of the terms of the treaty. The Security Council resolution No. 255 of 1968 did not fulfill the demands of the nonnuclear countries. The Third World countries had mainly raised three demands. First, they want a guarantee that the five nuclear powers would never employ their nuke warheads against any signatory to the nonproliferation treaty. Another demand was that the great powers should help the nonnuclear countries to counter a nuclear threat by a nuclear power that emerge from any Third World countries but not officially recognized. Another demand was that the five nuclear powers should facilitate the other countries to acquire the nuke technology for peaceful purposes.
However the nuclear powers have been playing political games backed by their nuclear advantage. They have never been interested in honoring the commitments to the nonnuclear countries.
A hurriedly prepared resolution was passed in 1995 to keep the protesting nonnuclear countries. It offered to provide the required help to a victim country if it is a signatory. It also specified that help would be given only after they suffer the attack. The countries under threat of nuclear attack will also be getting assistance but without specifying the kind of help they would receive. It was only due to various kinds of intimidations and enticements that several countries voted in favor of the resolution.
The Third World countries however pointed out that the resolution did not say emphatically that the use of nuclear warheads is a threat to international peace and security. The resolution did not provide for any mechanism to counter the situation in which a country comes under nuclear threat. It also did not specify any commitment by the nuclear powers to take measures to defend other countries when a nuclear attack takes place.
The resolution, which was the final outcome of the nuclear powers’ desire to extend their mastery over other countries, has been viewed with suspicion by the Third World countries because of the apparent double standard involved in it.
The powerful countries failed to implement the guarantees mentioned in the resolution. They refused to transfer the nuclear technology for peaceful applications to other countries. The US behaved in a dictatorial manner and was very harsh to the countries that did not obey its writ.
Several countries such as India and Pakistan were driven to develop their own nuclear programs and later their own weapons. Israel also achieved the nuclear capability with the approval and assistance of the US. Lately North Korea has entered the nuclear club.
It is quite logical to assume that a country which has an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction could not be forced to obey the dictates of another country. Therefore I believe any strike against North Korea carries heavy risks. Further, two important members of the Security Council, China and Russia, do not support punitive strikes against North Korea.
I believe that the NPT is bound to fail as long as the five nuclear countries do not abandon their greater ambitions and refuse to fulfill their guarantees to protect the nonnuclear countries.
