Special report: DPRK's Nuclear Test

Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted a nuclear test on Oct. 9. This move has produced an immense impact on peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the Northeast Asia region, on security order worldwide and on the global nuclear non-proliferation system. As a responsible nation, China, in a firm opposition to the test, is taking measures along with other members of the international community to strive to resolve the issue by peaceful means.

The manufacture and development of nuclear weapons have, to some extent, posed a threat to the existence of the entire humanity, and the eventual settlement of this issue lies in the prohibition and complete destruction of all nuclear weapons. The attainment of this goal, nevertheless, is very difficult at a time when nations of ethnicities constitute the main body of the international community and power politics remains a leading pattern of international behaviors and actions. At the same time, dangers for the destruction of the entire humanity by nuclear weapons also prompt the international community to respond so as to lower the degree of risks from nuclear weaponry. And main contents of the response indicate that all the nuclear-owned nations have to constrain themselves and reduce the number of their nuclear weapons through consultations and set up an international non-nuclear proliferation mechanism.

The treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which entered into force in 1970, is a landmark international treaty, a law basis for the international mechanism for nuclear non-proliferation and an international disarmament accord with the most of participating nations. For the past 36 years, it has had a role to play in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and also suffered from various kinds of interferences and negative impact, which have come from both nuclear and non-nuclear nations. For instance, the United States, as a major nuclear power, has signed the "Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty" (CTBT) but not rectified it. There is an ongoing debate whether or not the U.S. should rectified CTBT. It is engaged in the development of small-scale and battlefield-use nuclear weapons but it is not ready to commit itself not to be the first to use nuclear weapons or not to use them against non-nuclear countries. On the other hand, India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests by the end of last century. Israel has been widely regarded as a nuclear nation without an open announcement, and DPRK conducted a nuclear test recently. All these occurrences have lashed the international nuclear non-proliferation mechanism. As a dyke with leaks heralds its burst and collapse, so the international mechanism for nuclear non-proliferation also has gloomy prospects of some sort.

The rise of a peril situation in the international mechanism for nuclear non-proliferation has two reasons. One reason concerns clashes between the mechanism and its environment. The stark global reality today is that different nations are confronted with different "security dilemmas" with nuclear nations impulsively to retain their advantages and non-nuclear nations desperately to acquire their nuclear-possession status. And the other reason is due to defects with the international nuclear non-proliferation mechanism itself. Despite its objective contribution in lowering the extent of nuclear risks involved, the mechanism is discriminatory and unfair in a certain sense because the treaty unilaterally requires non-nuclear nations to assume their obligations whereas nuclear nations do not make any related commitments. NPT is, as a matter of fact, a contract treaty for nations to join on a voluntary basis with only a limited, soft legally-binding force and a relatively weak supervisory capability.

Moreover, the recent Abdul Qadeer Khan incident has unveiled a global underground nuclear technology black market dimly, but the current mechanism for international nuclear non-proliferation fails to effectively supervise it. So, there would be more and greater risks if nuclear weapon-making technologies are spread to non-state entities, and terrorist organizations and extremist groups in particular. To date, some people from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have proposed improving and enriching the nuclear non-proliferation mechanism so as to guard against and curtail the proliferation of nuclear weapons still more effectively.

Since the humanity has become hostages of nuclear weapon technology, whether it is able to steer and control the technology it has created poses a severe test for its wisdom, ethics and moral conduct.

Editor: Yan