NUCLEAR CRISIS UPDATE
CND is alarmed by the threat of nuclear war in North East Asia and the wider Pacific region. North Korea continues to test nuclear weapons and missiles in defiance of the international community, while the US and its allies continue provocative actions, threats and exercises in or near North East Asia and the Pacific. There is a real danger that these actions will lead to the use of nuclear weapons by intention or miscalculation. There are no safe hands for nuclear weapons and any detonation of a nuclear device would be a humanitarian catastrophe with global impacts. Threatening and isolating the North Korean regime risks escalating the conflict rather than encouraging solutions.
We urge the UK Government to use all appropriate diplomatic, international and legal means to end nuclear threats, to push for negotiations with North Korea and a return to the Six-Party Talks involving China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the US. Both immediate and longer term solutions are needed including creating a zone free of nuclear weapons in North East Asia, a process to address the underlying causes of regional insecurity and conflict on the Korean Peninsula, and the promotion of peace, development and cooperative co-existence and security for all peoples in the region.
We call on the UK Government to reject a military solution to the conflict and urgently use its influence to press for all involved to avoid and refrain from further provocative rhetoric or military exercises and tests.
Three actions everyone can take:
- Ask your MP to sign Caroline Lucas’s Early Day Motion
- Sign our letter to Tell Theresa May how to prevent a nuclear war
- Joint the protest: No Nuclear War • 5pm Thursday 28 September • Downing Street
Details
WHAT THEY SAY
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader and Vice President of CND, has called on US and North Korea to ‘calm down’ and get round the table. He urged Theresa May to press for a measured response and help bring the temperature down. Writing in the Sunday Mirror (13 August) he said: ‘The risks of an unintended escalation into full-blown conflict are too great… There can be no question of blind loyalty to the erratic and belligerent Trump administration.’
In a parliamentary debate on Korea on 5 September, Labour Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry ‘unreservedly’ condemned North Korea for flagrant breaches of international law but said ‘for the US to turn its back on diplomacy at this stage is simply irresponsible and, as its closest ally, we must be prepared to say so’.
Caroline Lucas MP and co-leader Green Party has tabled an Early Day Motion, EDM 243:
‘That this House expresses concern about the nuclear and missile testing by North Korea and the potential risk that provocative actions, threats and exercises in or near North East Asia and the Pacific which could lead to the use of nuclear weapons by intention or miscalculation; recognises that there are no safe hands for nuclear weapons and that any detonation of a nuclear device would be a humanitarian catastrophe with global impacts; acknowledges that further threatening and isolating the North Korean regime risks increasing the causes of conflict rather than encouraging solutions; urges the Government to use all appropriate diplomatic and international legal means to end nuclear threats, including active support for the UN Secretary-General and the EU in their offer to assist with negotiations with North Korea, and encouraging a return to the Six Party Talks involving China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the US; believes the objective of such talks should be to find immediate and longer term diplomatic solutions, including creating a zone free of nuclear weapons in North East Asia, a process to address the underlying causes of regional insecurity and conflict on the Korean Peninsula, and the promotion of peace, development and cooperative co-existence and security for all peoples in the region; and calls on the Government to reject a military solution to the conflict and urgently use its influence to press for all involved to avoid and refrain from further provocative rhetoric or military exercises and tests.’
Lindsey German, STW Coalition convenor, said North Korea’s missile tests demonstrated a readiness to threaten the US and its allies in the region. But attempt to present the conflict as one sided are hypocritical.
Christian CND has joined no war call saying the only solution is through dialogue. The international community has already shown what dialogue can achieve when the UN adopted a nuclear ban treaty.
The UK Scientists for Global Responsibility has produced a handy ‘beginners guide’ to nuclear threats, which explains the basic science.
In the United States, the Answer Coalition has reported anti-war demonstrations during August, including in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC. Answer sent a Peace Delegation to South Korea on 30 August.
Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, another US anti-war organisation visited South Korea recently to oppose the deployment of THAAD, the US missile system. She told a press conference: ‘The North Korean nuclear program is certainly alarming, as are the myriad human rights violations of that repressive regime. But the question is how best to de-escalate the conflict so that it doesn’t explode into an all-out nuclear war.’
