Stop plutonium proliferation
Greenpeace today condemned North Korea's declaration that it possesses nuclear weapons and that it has reprocessed spent fuel. In reports from talks being held in Beijing, U.S. officials have stated that North Korean delegates confirmed on Thursday that they had nuclear weapons and that nuclear reactor spent fuel had been reprocessed. If true the effect on the global nuclear non- proliferation is likely to be extremely severe, Greenpeace said.
"These disclosures, if true, are a devastating blow to efforts to prevent the global spread of nuclear weapons. There can be absolutely no justification for any nation possessing nuclear weapons and that includes North Korea. We are deeply concerned that this development will increase the risk of nuclear confrontation in North-east Asia. North Korea must immediately provide details on exactly what it has done and should agree to international inspection of its nuclear facilities to verify their status," said William Peden nuclear disarmament campaigner for Greenpeace International.
For more than ten years there has been much international debate over whether or not North Korea had acquired sufficient plutonium for nuclear weapons prior to a 1994 agreement that froze North Korea's nuclear program. Spent fuel containing plutonium was produced in a research reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear facility in the early 1990s. In recent years estimates have been made that this spent fuel contained as much as 9 kilograms of plutonium and that it had been reprocessed at Yongbyon before the facility was put under international inspection and shut down in 1994. This amount of plutonium, which would likely be weapons-grade, would be sufficient for two nuclear weapons.
North-East Asia is already awash in plutonium, largely concentrated in Japan. The Chinese Government has become more active in recent weeks on the North Korean crisis in part due to their concern that a nuclear- armed North Korea could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons throughout the region. China's greatest fear is that the response to a nuclear-armed North Korea could be an activation of a weapons programme in many North East Asian countries. Japan, for example, currently possesses 39,000 kilograms (kg) of plutonium, 5000 kg of which is in Japan, and enough to manufacture over 1,000 nuclear weapons, the rest of their plutonium is in Europe.
Since North Korea was named a member of the "axis of evil" by President George Bush, there have been growing concerns that a military "solution" to North Korea's nuclear program was being considered by the U.S. North Korea announced in January that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in January 2003, effective as of April 10th. In recent weeks North Korea has, allegedly, restarted its research reactor, and threatened to restart its reprocessing plant. In addition to the 9 kilograms that North Korea is believed to posses, a further 25 kilograms is contained inside 8000 fuel rods. This would take about six months to reprocess, yielding sufficient plutonium for further 5 nuclear weapons.
Given the secrecy inherent in North Korean society, there is no way at this stage of verifying whether or not it has actually assembled nuclear weapons. It is also possible that North Korea has obtained nuclear weapons data from Pakistan which would preclude any of the necessary nuclear tests and other diagnostics.
These shocking disclosures come days before the opening of talks of the member states of the NPT at the United Nations in Geneva due to start April 28th, when the future of the Treaty and global non-proliferation are to be discussed by 187 Governments.
"There are few times in the history of the NPT when the prospects for global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation have looked so bleak. All the nuclear weapon states that have failed to live up to their international legal commitments to disarm these past decades are guilty of encouraging nuclear proliferation. At this time it is vital that all concerned nations act with restraint and work through this crisis peacefully," said Kazue Suzuki of Greenpeace Japan.
For further information:
Phone the Greenpeace International Press Office on +31 6 212 96 908
A Greenpeace briefing on plutonium proliferation in North-East Asia is available at www.greenpeace.org
