Happy 'Nuclear Free' Anniversary Kim Jong-il

The history of North Korea's pursuit of the bomb is a cautionary tale about the dual use of nuclear power.  The country was given reactor technology and expertise by several countries, had made the mandatory promises to use that power for energy, not weapons, and until a few years ago allowed inspectors to verify it was so. 


The next time someone tells you that nuclear power is "clean and safe" ask them how North Korea was able to convert their reactors into bomb factories.

From Atoms for Peace to atomic weapons

North Korea was suspected of pursuing an active weapons program up to 1994, when it signed an agreement with the US to freeze all activities.

Then in December 2002 it restarted its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. Monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were expelled, and in January 2003, North Korea declared its withdrawal from the international Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

In mid-2003 Pyongyang announced it had completed the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods to extract weapons-grade plutonium and was developing a "nuclear deterrent." 

By early 2005 North Korea announced it had produced nuclear weapons, but it has not, to date, conducted a test detonation. 

Seven nations have demonstrated their nuclear capabilities: The US, The Russian Federation, the UK, France, China, India, and Pakistan.  Israel is known to have nuclear weapons but has never admitted as much, and never claimed responsibility for an explosive nuclear test.

A new Asian arms race?

If North Korea does test a nuclear weapon, it threatens to destabilize the entire region.  Tensions on the Korean Peninsular will rise, and a new nuclear arms race could start in South East Asia.

South Korea has expressed an interest in obtaining stockpiles of plutonium similar to those in Japan, where one of the world's largest repositories of nuclear weapons material sits side-by-side with some of the world's most advanced missile technology.

The nuclear club ought to be getting smaller, and it would be if the nuclear weapons states were to live up to their commitments to rid the world of nuclear weapons.  That was the deal of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"Rather than testing a nuclear weapon, Kim Jong-il should celebrate the occasion by taking a step towards a nuclear free world," says Steve Shallhorn, Executive Director of Greenpeace Australia Pacific. “As long as some countries have nuclear weapons other countries will inevitably seek to achieve them. Not only should North Korea refrain from this test and renounce its nuclear weapons programme, so should each and every one of the other nuclear weapons states.”

As Kim Jong-il celebrates, we're urging him to forego the nuclear fireworks.