Curtail Nuclear Proliferation Discussion

Week 7: Curtail Nuclear Proliferation Discussion

Sarah S. (Please write 200 words discussion)

North Korea has active and increasing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and is believed to possess chemical and biological weapons capabilities. They have defied the international community by continuing to test weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In 2018 Kim Jong-un met with Donald Trump at a summit meeting pledged to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” (NTI, 2020). Shortly after, North Korea began testing missiles again. Even with heavy sanctions on North Korea from the international community, North Korea continues to build its nuclear, ballistic, chemical, and biological weapons.

Since nuclear treaties, summits, and sanctions do not seem to faze North Korea and their intentions to continue to build WMDs, a different approach might be necessary. It may be a difficult task, but one way to slow nuclear proliferation is for the international community to make nuclear weapons illegal and place heavy sanctions on states that are assisting with weapon supplies to North Korea.

North Korea Nuclear Weapons Threat | Nuclear Proliferation North Korea | NTI. (2020, October). NTI. https://www.nti.org/learn/countries/north-korea/

Jesus B. (Please write 200 words discussion)

Considering the threats posed by a nuclear North Korea, or ongoing tensions and hostilities between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, how should the international community proceed to reduce the risks and curtail nuclear proliferation?

Nuclear weapons pose an incredibly destructive threat. Prevention of the proliferation and use of nuclear weapons is urgently important to public health. (Sidel, V. W., & Levy, B. S., 2007). North Korea still be testing new nuclear weapons, and WPMD North Korea’s missile testing programs put in danger the ecosystem and the world. The radiation makes a significant impact on the environment and creates a negative effect on the climate North Korea unilaterally withdrew from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in January 2003, is not a party to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and has conducted six increasingly sophisticated nuclear tests since 2006. (North Korea. (n.d.).The current Nuclear proliferation in North Korea has created tension between Pakistan and India. The international community should curtail the manufacture and testing of WMD, and nuclear weapons sanctions should be implemented to countries that are not in the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons and are still testing those weapons and technology.

Sidel, V. W., & Levy, B. S. (2007). The proliferation of nuclear weapons: opportunities for control and abolition. American journal of public health, 97(9), 1589–1594. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2006.100602.

North Korea. (n.d.). Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://www.nti.org/learn/countries/north-korea/