The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the
Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, January 22nd, 2003.
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The nuclear weapons issue
The nations that are known to have nuclear weapons are the US, Russia,
France, Britain, China, Israel, Pakistan and India. Before the overthrow
of the apartheid regime in South Africa, that country had also developed
nuclear weapons but after its election the ANC government had them
destroyed. South Africa is the only country in the world to have carried
out total nuclear disarmament.
At the time, the development by South Africa of a nuclear capacity was
kept quiet and no protests were made by the Western powers.
To this day, there has been silence on Israel's development of nuclear
weapons. No mention is made in the mass media. Western governments are
party to this policy of silence. Nothing has been said by the
International Energy Agency (IAEA).
The UN Security Council has said nothing. Israel is not a party to the
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) was first adopted in 1968 and
many countries have adhered to it including the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
For many years the governments of the People's Republic of China and
France criticised the Treaty as being a means to ensure the maintenance
of the monopoly of nuclear weapons by the major powers. These countries
only joined the Treaty in 1992, thereby becoming members of the
exclusive nuclear club of big powers.
For many years the Soviet Union and China waged a strong campaign for
the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons but with the break-up of
the Soviet Union little is now being said by the five big powers about
this obligation which is contained in Article 6 of the NPT.
Breach of treaties
Article 6 says that the parties will undertake negotiations "in good
faith" on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms
race and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete
disarmament under strict and effective international control.
There was a Review Conference in 2000 of the NPT, but the nuclear powers
did not find the time to negotiate complete nuclear disarmament. The
United States and the other nuclear powers are, therefore, all in
violation of their obligations under the Treaty.
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), an agreement between the US and
the Soviet Union, did result in some reduction of nuclear weapon
stockpiles by these two powers, but this treaty has been unceremoniously
torn up by President George Bush, signalling an open go in the nuclear
arms race.
The Star Wars program now being pushed by the Bush administration will
result in the nuclearisation of space.
The Western powers looked at this issue from the point of view of "evil"
powers - the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China-and "good"
powers - the US, Britain, France, Israel and apartheid South Africa.
Pakistan and India were also condemned by the West when they developed
nuclear weapons but they are "big" powers and it was impossible for the
UN or the IAEA to do anything about it.
In any case they fell between the "evil" powers and the "good" powers.
As we know, Pakistan is now on "our" side, meaning on the side of US
imperialism and the other Western powers.
It is on this background that the present virulent campaign is being
waged against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) because
it has pulled out of the NPT on January 11 this year.
North Korean statement
In a statement the Government of the DPRK says: "Though we pull out of
the NPT, we have no intention to produce nuclear weapons and our nuclear
activities at this stage will be confined only to peaceful purposes such
as the production of electricity.
"If the US drops its hostile policy to stifle the DPRK and stops its
nuclear threat to the DPRK, the DPRK may prove through a separate
verification between the DPRK and the US, that it does not make any
nuclear weapons."
The Government and people of the DPRK have faced 50 years of hostility
from the US. The US has imposed a trade embargo, has occupied South
Korea with about 37,000 troops, has stationed their "good" nuclear
weapons in South Korea, has built a 10-metre high wall on the South
Korea side from one side of the Korean peninsular to the other and has
made many threats of aggression.
Anti-American demos in South
What is new in the situation is the widespread anti-American
demonstrations in South Korea over the killing of two South Korean
schoolgirls by an American vehicles the crew of which were exonerated by
US authorities.
The demonstrators are also demanding the removal of American troops from
South Korea. More and more the South Korean people are in favour of the
reunification of the two Koreas.
This is also a major factor behind the whipping up of a crisis
atmosphere and the renewed threats being made against the DPRK.
There is another worry. It is that other nations may acquire nuclear
weapons. The technology to manufacture such weapons is well known.
But would the world be a more dangerous place if other nations had
nuclear weapons? Are other (smaller) countries all to be branded as "evil"?
The only country to have actually used nuclear weapons is the United
States. The country that threatens to use nuclear weapons to enforce its
dictate is the United States. It has once again made such a threat in
connection with its campaign for war against Iraq.
Similar threats have been made in the past against the DPRK. The DPRK
Government's statement says, "A dangerous situation where our nation's
sovereignty and our state's security are being seriously violated is .
due to the vicious, hostile policy of the US towards the DPRK".
US failed to deliver
The US and its lackeys refer to an earlier agreement made between the US
and the DPRK in 1994. This agreement arose out of a similar "crisis".
The "Agree Framework" provided that the DPRK would freeze its then
existing nuclear power generating plants in exchange for the supply of
heavy oil to the DPRK by the US and the construction of light water
reactors which do not have by-products which could be turned into
nuclear weapons.
Last year the US suspended its supply of heavy oil on the basis of a
"nuclear suspicion". Furthermore, the US failed to build the light water
reactors. The result is to undermine the ability of the DPRK, faced with
the onset of winter, to supply electric power to its people and its
industries.
The DPRK has called for the conclusion of a non-aggression pact between
the US and the DPRK only to be met with the assertion by the US leaders
that they will not negotiate.
The IAEA is also being manipulated by the US to put pressure on the
DPRK. The IAEA has had nothing to say and has done nothing to protest
against the continual nuclear threats by the US against other countries.
It has done nothing about the possession of nuclear weapons by Israel.
The IAEA has not demanded that their inspectors be located in Israeli
nuclear weapon plants.
The IAEA has not based its resolution on the full terms of the 1994
agreement. It only refers to part of it. It turns the DPRK into the
victim and as responsible for the present situation.
It has not protested over the declaration of the US that the DPRK is
part of an "axis of evil".
The IAEA appears to be hypocritical in its assessment of the role played
by different powers with a fundamental policy that aims to maintain the
"big" power monopoly of nuclear weapons.
The US attempts to portray itself as the only "moral" country, but what
moral reason did earlier US Governments have to build the first atomic
weapons and then to drop them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
In effect the US is demanding that it and those countries that it
regards as being "good" have the right to have nuclear weapons and other
weapons of mass destruction and that all other countries must disarm
and, in effect, place themselves at the feet of the US master-race.
Asked to comment on the present situation, Peter Symon, CPA Secretary
told The Guardian that "the only sane policy for the world is the
complete elimination by all countries of all weapons of mass destruction
including nuclear weapons.
"The US leaders have consistently rejected such a demand in the past and
are now planning to use their huge stockpile of weapons of mass
destruction to impose their military, economic and political will on all
other nations in the world without exception.
"To this end the US and its allied politicians and the owners of the
mass media are piling up lies and half-truths to deceive the people and
justify the monstrous plans that they are now implementing.
"The threat to the world's peace and security and to the sovereignty and
independence of nations does not come from Iraq or the DPRK but from the
leaders of the United States."
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