|
South Korea used strong words to criticize North Korea's failure to abide by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which the communist country signed and eventually abandoned, deepening an international arms standoff.
At a UN conference on atomic arms control that began in New York, South Korea's top envoy to the conference, Chun Yeong-woo, said the North Korean nuclear issue is a threat to regional security and world peace. Chun also called on North Korea to completely abandon its nuclear weapons program in order to achieve a breakthrough in the currently stalled six-party nuclear talks.
North Korea pursued nuclear weapons development when it was still an NPT member, then withdrew from the pact and announced it has nuclear weapons. It apparently fired a short-range missile into the East Sea on the eve of the conference, deepening tensions.
Iran's nuclear ambition was also in focus at the conference. Tehran declared its determination to pursue all legal areas of nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment "exclusively for peaceful purposes".
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker asked the conference to endorse a U.S. proposal that no state should receive help to develop peaceful nuclear programs if it tries to develop nuclear weapons.
Arirang TV
|
