Delivery time2023-08-30 11:20
“Necessity of a legally binding nuclear test ban”
Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
[UPI=연합뉴스 자료사진. 재판매 및 DB 금지]
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Correspondent Lee Do-yeon = UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of the danger of annihilation of mankind in relation to nuclear weapons.
Secretary-General Guterres said in a statement on the International Day Against Nuclear Tests on the 29th (local time) that a legally binding ban on nuclear tests is a step towards a world without nuclear weapons, given that there are 13,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled around the world. It is a fundamental movement, he said.
He stressed that as countries seek to increase the accuracy and destructiveness of their nuclear weapons, increasing distrust and division around the world will be the way to annihilation.
In 1996, the United Nations adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
However, the United States, China, Iran, Israel, and Egypt did not ratify, and North Korea, India, and Pakistan did not even join.
At a meeting held at the United Nations Headquarters in the United States that day, Secretary-General Robert Floyd of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) said, “We are facing challenging and worrisome times globally,” but Somalia and South Sudan promise to sign and ratify the treaty. The driving force toward universality is growing.”
Izumi Nakamitsu, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament, pointed out that “the increasing nuclear risk threatens to engulf the hard-won achievements of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation over the past 30 years.”
Joka Brandt, the Netherlands’ ambassador to the United Nations, said that the entry into force of the treaty is “very important and urgent.”
Iran’s representative, Haidar Ali Balooji, said, “I know the dissatisfaction of non-nuclear countries about the delay in halting nuclear tests. The cornerstone of eliminating the nuclear threat rests with nuclear-weapon states,” but did not mention their country’s ratification of the treaty.
At the meeting, there were also voices condemning North Korea’s nuclear test.
Silvio Gonzato, deputy head of the European Union’s mission, said, “North Korea cannot and will not have the status of a nuclear power in the future,” and urged the country to comply with UN Security Council sanctions banning nuclear tests.
The International Day Against Nuclear Tests was established by the United Nations in 2009 to raise awareness of nuclear tests and to commemorate the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan on August 29, 1991.
Akan Rahmetulin, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to the United Nations, said, “Since the first atomic bomb exploded in 1945, at least eight countries have carried out a total of 2,056 nuclear tests. It has caused harm and suffering.”
Report via KakaoTalk okjebo
<저작권자(c) 연합뉴스,
Unauthorized reproduction – redistribution prohibited>
2023/08/30 11:20 Sent
#SecretaryGeneral #United #Nations #nuclear #weapons #world.. #distrust #rises #humanity #annihilated #yunhap #news
2023-08-30 02:20:27
