Amidst tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, President Donald Trump told the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday the United States would totally destroy North Korea, a country of 25 million people. Then, on Wednesday, 51 countries signed a new treaty that would ban nuclear weapons. The United Nations calls it the world’s first legally binding treaty banning nuclear weapons. It prohibits the development, testing, and possession of nuclear weapons, as well as using or threatening to use these weapons. The treaty is set to take effect 90 days after it is ratified. It was first adopted in July by 122 U.N. member states, despite heavy U.S. opposition. None of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons signed the measure. Those countries are the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.
Susi Snyder talking:
this week, 50 countries said, “We ultimately reject nuclear weapons. We find them completely illegitimate, and we are willing to sign the first treaty that makes them totally illegal.” And this is the first 50. There were 42 in an hour. And it’s the first time that nuclear weapons are categorically prohibited. This is new, and it is an effective measure that responsible countries are taking to make sure to reduce nuclear dangers.
every country has a ratification process that’s a little different, so it means adopting this treaty as part of your national law. Now, there’s already 115 countries that have rejected nuclear weapons in regional agreements. And we expect that a lot of those are going to be able to ratify very quickly. All the way through this process, countries have been condemning nuclear weapons because they’re inhumane at catastrophic effect. And this is a humanitarian treaty that’s rooted in international humanitarian law, the law of war, saying nuclear weapons can’t be possessed or used, or even the threat of nuclear weapons is illegal. And that’s a very positive step for us. So, we’ll see 50 ratifications in the coming year or so, and then the treaty will enter into force.
it’s really unfortunate, especially since five them are required by the Non-Proliferation Treaty to negotiate nuclear disarmament. They did not do that. And they are missing an opportunity. The countries that led this process recognize that it’s the impact of nuclear weapons, that we need to talk about them as weapons, not as tools. And that is what reframed the debate. It reframed the discussion. And the impact it will have on the nuclear-armed states is that we’re strengthening a norm, and we’re making their weapons illegitimate. And that has led historically to disarmament.
“Don’t Bank on the Bomb” works with the financial sector to stop investment in nuclear weapon-producing companies. And we had a great announcement from Amalgamated Bank here in New York on the day of the signing, that said, “Hey, we don’t have any investment in nuclear weapons producers, because we find it illegitimate.” And that’s the first U.S. bank that we know of that’s made such an announcement. This is one of the things that’s going to have a big impact on making sure that the production of weapons, of these nuclear weapons, stops.
it’s been a coalition of nongovernmental organizations through the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons; governments—it’s been about 120 governments that have really been emphatic about this; and the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, who have talked about the humanitarian consequences of this weapon. And that’s what we need to keep our focus on.
the Iran deal is—it’s a good deal. It stops the Iranian nuclear program. The activities of North Korea should—there should have been a negotiation directly with North Korea to make a similar deal, and we missed that opportunity. There needs to be direct negotiations so that we don’t get into war.
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Susi Snyder
nuclear disarmament program manager for the Netherlands-based group and author of the report “Don’t Bank on the Bomb.”
— source democracynow.org 2017-09-23