Up in Arms: Nuclear Weapons and North Korea

Nuclear arms atomic calculate 18 not merely fickle devices that release an enormous amount of energy through the fusion or fission of atomic nuclei, merely the secrete of producing and researching it involves a more difficult threat. Originall(a)y progressed for use in orb War II (1939-45), these thermo thermo thermo atomic weapons are among modern warfares most lethal and destructive weapons. These could kill cities in seconds and the destruction would advance through egress many years as people affected by it get appear suffer various diseases. Thus, the issue of thermo thermonuclear weapons indeed encompass strategical, semipolitical and pagan dimensions as these are instruments that pose a global threat.Around the human beings, there exists a growth clamor that it is not enough merely to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world. People call for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Members of the st ailment movement have long opposed nuclear weapo ns on the chaste grounds that they have the potential to destroy mankind. For that obvious reason, nuclear weaponry should not be manufactured, tested or used, and those remaining should be destroyed. Surprisingly, calls for the send off abolition of nuclear arms have come from different quarters, all the same from a group of former high-ranking military officers.Just recently, northwest Korea had been embroiled in this controversy when it insisted that they would never dismantle its nuclear program, maculation the get together pass ons maintained a hostile policy toward the country this year.If we seek into its history, nuclear weapons and Korea have been entwined for more than 50 years. During the Korean War (1950-1953), the unite States threatened several times to use nuclear weapons. This is the reason wherefore the U.S. military personnels remained in south Korea (the Republic of Korea). The united States began deploying several types of nuclear weapons to the Sout h in January 1958, a time of extensive worldwide U.S. nuclear deployments. Initially, four different kinds of nuclear weapons were introduced with U.S. Army forces in South Korea the frank John surface-to-surface projectile, the massive 280-millimeter gun, the 8-inch artillery shell, and atomic demolition munitions (ADMs) (Mack, 1994).However, north-central Korea is widely believed to have produced and separated enough plutonium for a small number of nuclear warheads. Most or all of the plutonium came from the 5-MWe answeror at Yongbyon, which went critical on August 14, 1985, and became operational the following January. The U.S. intelligence federation believes that during a 70-day shutdown in 1989, due north Korea secretly removed provide from the reactor and separated the plutonium. Estimates vary as to how much plutonium was obtained.The State section believes about 6-8 kilograms the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency say 8-9 kilograms, an melodic theme consistent wit h the careful analysis of the Institute for Science and International security system. South Korean, Japanese, and Russian analysts have made much higher estimates, ranging up to 24 kilograms (Albright and Higgins, 2002).What is incredible with this issue is that unification Korea never admitted it possessed nuclear weapons, but it appears likely that it does. NBC Nightly News reported in 1993 that reprocessed plutonium had already been converted from a liquid form to metal, and several U.S. officials concluded that capital of trade union Korea had made it into a bomb.In November 2002, the CIA went nevertheless than its previous estimates, stating, The United States has been bear on about normality Koreas desire for nuclear weapons and has assessed since the early 1990s that the conjugation has one or possibly two weapons using plutonium it produced front to 1992 (Norris, Kristensen and Handler, March/April 2003).By August 2005, the issue of nuclear proliferation on the Kore an peninsula continue to dominate the political landscape. Talks between northerly Korea and the United States had met with little success, with no narrowing of the gap between those two countries on normality Koreas peaceful use of nuclear energy.The United States proceed to insist that all of labor union Koreas nuclear facilities had to be razed while North Koreans insisted that they had the right to conduct peaceful nuclear activities. Indeed, North Korean chief delegate Kim Kye-gwan rhetorically asked, We are not a defeated nation in war, and we have committed no crime, so why should we not be able to conduct peaceful nuclear activities? (BBC News, 5 August 2006).With this, several countries warned North Korea that propeling a missile would yield undesirable results. Notably, Japanese Prime MinisterJunichiro Koizumi advised North Korea against test-firing the missile saying, Japan has been importunity North Korea to stop the attempt to lay down a missile. We are making ef forts to urge North Korea to act rationally and with self-restraint. He went on to warn, If it does not listen to us and fires a missile, we have to consult with the United States and take stern measures .Moreover, the United States Department of State reacted to the launch of the North Koreas missile Taepodon-2 as a provocative and attention-seeking act. White House press secretary, Tony Snow, said that President George W. crotch hair was consulting with secretarial assistant of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the matter. Secretary Rice called on North Korea to return to the six-sided discussion table (Associated Press, 19 June 2006).For its part, North Korea confirmed that it had test-fired a serial publication of missiles and that further missile tests would be launched. North Korean officials also warned that they would react strongly to punitive pressures from the worldwide community. Furthermore, Nor th Korea defiantly defended its right to launch the missiles, saying that it was a matter of national sovereignty. That said, geopolitical analysts observed that North Koreas latest moves may have been made for strategic reasons quite than simply as an act of national sovereignty. With the seemingly stubborn view of North Korea, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 1718 on October 14, 2006.The resolution called for the inspections on cargo going to and from North Korea to search for weapons, a ban on the sale or transfer of materials related to North Koreas unconventional weapons program, and a freeze on the transfer of money connected with North Koreas nuclear and ballistic missile programs (The Economist 21 October 2006). Absent from Resolution 1718 was the Chapter Seven of the United Nations charter provision, which would enforce the sanctions via military force . Even though the resolution was approved by the United Nations Security Council and welcomed by the international community, total agreement on the matter of North Korea remained distant (Arms Control Today Magazine, November 2006).With these turn of events, we could clearly point out how nuclear weapons became a strategic instrument of North Korea to defy the will of the international community. North Korea is flexing its military capabilities by showing off its nuclear weapons. This underscored the need for the nations to begin disarming as soon as possible. North Korea may have felt an ominous threat that they decided they must(prenominal) acquire nuclear weapons in order to catch up to and hit equal status with a military giant like the United States.However, their intentions were not well-received by their neighbours because North Korea became a threat itself when it decided to adjure with their nuclear missile tests. Moreover, the international community is frowning upon the real intentions of these tests, whether North Korea is just out to protect itself or is it a tactical syllabus to scare off their neighbours by virtually stating Dont view up with us, or else Thus, these strategic moves by North Korea effectively served to further isolate the country and confirm its pariah status within the international community.As we all know, the effect of nuclear weapons is not limited to political and social relations. According to Frey (2003), it is undeniable that nuclear weapons cause destruction in a number of different ways. They create temperatures upon explosion that are, at least(prenominal) initially, millions of degrees hot. Some of their first effects are heat effects, and materials are lots incinerated on contact.The heat from the blast also causes rapid expansion of air, resulting in very high winds that can blow over buildings and other structures. A weapon blast also releases high levels of radiation, such as neutrons, x-rays, and da Gamma rays. Humans and other animals close to the centre of the blast suffer illness and death from radiation exposure. The set of symptoms associated with such exposure is known as radiation sickness. Many individuals who survive radiation sickness eventually develop cancer and their offspring frequently suffer genetic damage. Finally, a weapons blast releases huge amounts of radioactive materials. Some of these materials settle out of the atmosphere almost immediately, creating widespread contamination. Others remain in the atmosphere for weeks or months, resulting in long-term radioactive fallout.In the final analysis, the impending danger of the nuclear testing that North Korea is undertaking could be an ominous phenomenon for all of us. As the scenarios above have explained, nuclear weapons encompass strategic, political and cultural dimensions of whether these harmful military arsenals need to be maintained. Experts have already cited that the continued production of nuclear weapons must be halted soon or elegance itself will be imperilled.On the contrary, some military experts disagree, arguing that the reality of sophisticated nuclear weapons is a deterrent to nuclear war, even urging that nations should be ready to use nuclear weapons first, if necessary. In studying the interlinking issue of nuclear weapons, people should take a closer facet at the extent of the nuclear danger facing the world nowadays and debate the best methods for enhancing nuclear security. A win-win solution should be drafted so that the greater good of humanity comes in first, before any strategic or political agenda of any organization or nation. whole shebang CitedAlbright, David and Higgins, Holly. 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Canberra, Australia Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1994.Norris, Robert S., Kristensen, Hans M. and Handler, Joshua. North Koreas nuclear program, 2003. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 59.2 (March/April 2003) 74-77. Accessed online 14 December 2006 at http//www.thebulletin.org/article_nn.php?art_ofn=ma03norrisThe Economist. Going Critical, Defying the World Nuclear-Weapons Proliferation. 381.8500 (Oct 21, 2006) 79.