North Korea’s nuclear test

Oops. Yet another step toward global instability, taken while the US has been quite distracted by its self-created quagmire in Iraq:

    “The field of scientific research in the DPRK successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, 2006, at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward… ”

Oh, my God. All the world needs: another “great leap forward” in this or any other field of endeavor.
The world now apparently has nine nuclear weapons powers. Five of them are “recognized” nuclear weapons states: the US, Russia, China, Britain, and France. And four are non-“recognized”: Israel, India, Pakistan, and now North Korea. Only one state, the US, has ever used nuclear weapons.
By an “amazing coincidence” (irony alert!), the five recognized NW states are also the five states that wield vetoes at the Security Council.
Back in 1970 when the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT) went into effect, the five recognized nuclear states and all other NPT signatories solemnly committed themselves to engaging in good-faith efforts of “complete and general disarmament.” (Article 6.) Having seen the huge constraints in the modern era of any too-great reliance on unilateralism and military force– in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and Lebanon– it is now time to draw all the nations of the world into a campaign to follow through on that promise. The ingenuity of humankind is surely great enough for us to devise ways of resolving problems and differences among us that do not rely on threats of speciescide.

10 thoughts on “North Korea’s nuclear test”

  1. Back in 1970 when the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT) went into effect, the five recognized nuclear states and all other NPT signatories
    Sorry to nitpick but France didn’t join the NPT until 1992. Its status as “nuclear weapons state” comes from having detonated a nuclear bomb before Jan. 1, 1967.

  2. Ah yes, France. Those great nuclear proliferators, who oh-so-generously shared their expertise with the Israelis back in the 1950s and 1960s…

  3. Hmm, if Israel has had nuclear weapons as long as Helena indicates, then if it joins the NPT,shouldn’t it be deemed a pre-existing nuclear state? Shouldn’t it also receive a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, with veto?

  4. Apartheid Israel keeps trying to exist in a world that will never tolerate another South Africa. As long as “the Zionist entity” has enough destructive weaponry (most definitely including nuclear — thanks to France) and the unconditional backing of its only international friend and empire, The United States, it may continue to destabilize the Middle East for some indefinite, though finite, time to come. The Israeli Lobby’s frenzied attempts to shut down any and all critical opinion of the Zionist entity in the United States reflects this understanding and this fear.
    The last European Crusades in the Levant survived in one form or another for about two-hundred years. The current Zionist entity kingdom has barely managed only about a fourth of that time. Its prospects do not look encouraging given where it has chosen to locate itself as well as the nature of the surrounding and hostile demographics. It may succeed in keeping its only friend and patron, the United States, from knowing the truth about its nature and activities, but that will only result in the eventual loss of America, too. To the extent that Americans have let lobbyists for the Zionist entity dictate America’s own parameters for public discussion, that loss to — and of — America has already begun.

  5. Boys, the North Koreans seem to have just exploded a nuclear weapon. This is not about Israel.
    We really need to get serious about understanding how to live with nuclear weapons. You may think we’ve been doing that for 60 years, but not really. Until recently, it has been possible to pretend that only a small circle of nation states organized on familiar (if sometimes distasteful) 18th and 19th century principles would be able to “contain” this knowledge, and that all they had to do was maintain some rough balance of deterrent capability among their peer group, while mutually exploiting the rest of the world.
    This model simply isn’t going to work anymore. Eventually, everybody who wants them is going to have nukes. The question is not how to prevent this from happening, but how to maximize the chances for human survival in the new world. We all have a common interest in this, don’t you think?

  6. Interesting reading. First, in what bit of news I’d seen during the day, I’d seen references to N.Korea being the eighth nuclear power. Funny how the corporate media doesn’t want to count Israel.
    Actually, I can’t imagine this is the earthshaking news that everyone makes it out to be. I’ll be anyone $5 that N.Korea won’t attack anyone with nuclear weapons when they build their next bomb (assuming they don’t have a second already). They won’t attack that day, or in the next month, or in the next year.
    The western media acts like they are crazy people, but knowing the response that would rain down on N.Korea if they did bomb someone, they simply ain’t gonna do it.
    In other words, Mutual Assured Destruction still works. On in this case, One-sided Assured Destruction makes a fine deterent.
    What N.Korea wants a bomb for is for protection, mainly from the US. It adds an element of uncertainty to any US generals planning a strike on N.Korea.

  7. Boys, the North Koreans seem to have just exploded a nuclear weapon. This is not about Israel.
    John C you are absolutely correct, except that in Helena’s sad mind (or her handlers) everything is about Israel.
    In any case Bush was prophetically right in identifying the axis of evil. North Korea nuclear while starving their people, Iran bent on nukes and willing to sacrifice half their people, and Iraq already sacrificing each other while they could get the US out peacefully in 4 months by just playing along instead of blowing each other up.

  8. David, I did not make this discussion all about Israel. (Try reading the text?) It is about nuclear proliferation and the need to get serious about implementing Article 6.
    Also, David, your friendliness quotient there is notably low (or lacking.) Please shape up.

  10. Helena,
    You did introduce Israel in your response to the challenge about France’s membership. You were the first to introduce it and do the usual change of subject plus smear. Read you own posts, look back at what you said in the past before attacking others.
    Oh, and your language does not read any friendlier than David’s. Do you want a list of pejoratives you have thrown at your dissenters?

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