Kono calls for disarmament

April 24, 2018

Japan calls on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty members to push N. Korea further on nukes

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/04/24/national/politics-diplomacy/japan-calls-nuclear-non-proliferation-treaty-members-push-n-korea-nukes/#.WuBran8uCos

Kyodo

GENEVA – Foreign Minister Taro Kono on Tuesday called on parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to urge North Korea to go beyond a freeze of nuclear testing and seek a “complete, verifiable and irreversible” end to its nuclear program.

“North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs pose a grave challenge to the international nuclear non-proliferation regime,” Kono said in Geneva during the second preparatory committee meeting for the 2020 NPT review conference.

Kono said Japan welcomes North Korea’s promise last week to halt its testing of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles, and to dismantle its main nuclear testing site.

“We need to urge North Korea, however, to do more than what was announced,” he said.

He said the international community requires North Korea to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, or CTBT.

Kono also discussed the recommendations of a panel of experts assembled by the Japanese government for bridging the dialogue gap between countries seeking to abolish nuclear weapons and those that count on them as part of their defense.

Based on the recommendations, Kono said Japan is calling for the international community to improve the transparency of countries’ nuclear forces, establish a more effective verification mechanism for nuclear disarmament and address “hard questions” about “security concerns that may emerge from the nuclear disarmament process.”

Japan expressed fear over a further widening of the gap between the nuclear haves and have-nots to explain why it has refused to take part in a U.N. treaty banning nuclear weapons adopted last year, despite seeking a world free of such weapons.

The world’s nuclear-armed states and other countries that rely on the U.S. nuclear deterrent also sat out on negotiations for the ban treaty.

“A sovereign state must protect the lives and properties of her people. We need to seek security and nuclear disarmament simultaneously,” Kono said.

He said Japan, as the only country to have sustained wartime nuclear bombings, has a “responsibility to lead international efforts towards the elimination of nuclear weapons.”

The meeting is the second of three that will be held prior to the 2020 review conference. It began on Monday and will run through May 4.

Kono’s predecessor Fumio Kishida attended the first meeting in Vienna last year.

April 24, 2018

Kono calls for disarmament and security

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180424_36/

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono has stressed the importance of seeking nuclear disarmament while at the same time ensuring security.

Kono was speaking at a preparatory meeting on Tuesday for the 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in Geneva.

He explained the recommendations on nuclear arms reduction submitted to Japan last month by a panel of experts from countries that possess nuclear arms as well as from those that do not.

Kono stressed the need to build trust between countries that say nuclear arms are needed as deterrence and those that call for their abolition on humanitarian grounds.

He said Japan believes that creating realistic measures with the cooperation of nuclear-armed and non-nuclear nations is the path to a nuclear-free world.

Kono indicated that Japan will play a leading role in maintaining and strengthening the framework for nuclear non-proliferation.

He welcomed North Korea's announcement that it would halt its nuclear and missile tests, but warned about easing pressure against the country. He stressed that the international community must remain united to maintain maximum pressure.

Kono offered no comment on the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted last year.