Up in Arms: Nuclear Weapons and North Korea

atomic weapons ar non merely explosive devices that expose an enormous amount of energy through the fusion or fission of atomic nuclei, but the output of producing and researching it involves a more complex threat. Origin aloney developed for phthisis in World struggle II (1939-45), these atomic weapons argon among modern warfares endingly lethal and destructive weapons. These could decimate cities in seconds and the destruction would advance throughtaboo umpteen years as people touched by it will suffer heterogeneous diseases. Thus, the issue of atomic weapons indeed get the picture strategic, semipolitical and pagan dimensions as these are cocks that pose a global threat. slightly the beingness, there exists a growing shriek that it is non enough merely to surmount the event of thermo thermo thermo thermonuclear weapons in the world. state call for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Members of the peace movement stomach longsighted opposed nucle ar weapons on the clean-living grounds that they prevail the potential to suppress mankind. For that obvious reason, nuclear arms should not be manuf numberured, tested or used, and those be should be destroyed. Surprisingly, calls for the complete abolition of nuclear arms have come from unlike quarters, even from a group of reason high-ranking military officers.Just recently, north Korea had been embroiled in this contr all oversy when it insisted that they would neer dismantle its nuclear program, while the coupled assigns maintained a hostile form _or_ system of government toward the country this year.If we look into its history, nuclear weapons and Korea have been entwined for more than 50 years. During the Korean War (1950-1953), the joined States threatened some(prenominal) clock to use nuclear weapons. This is the reason why the U.S. military forces rested in s unwraphernmost Korea (the land of Korea). The fall in States began deploying several types of nucle ar weapons to the south in January 1958, a time of prolonged worldwide U.S. nuclear deployments. Initially, four antithetic kinds of nuclear weapons were introduced with U.S. Army forces in South Korea the H angiotensin-converting enzymest John surface-to-surface projectile, the massive 280-millimeter gun, the 8-inch weapon shell, and atomic demolition munitions (ADMs) (Mack, 1994).However, sexual union Korea is widely believed to have produced and separated enough atomic number 94 for a small number of nuclear warheads. Most or all of the plutonium came from the 5-MWe reactor at Yongbyon, which went critical on August 14, 1985, and became operational the following January. The U.S. parole community believes that during a 70-day shutdown in 1989, due north Korea secretly removed give notice from the reactor and separated the plutonium. Estimates vary as to how much plutonium was obtained.The State incision believes about 6-8 kilograms the CIA and Defense Intelligence way of life say 8-9 kilograms, an estimate consistent with the thrifty analysis of the Institute for Science and world-wide guarantor. South Korean, Japanese, and Russian analysts have do much higher estimates, ranging up to 24 kilograms (Alb compensate and Higgins, 2002).What is incredible with this issue is that unification Korea never admitted it possessed nuclear weapons, but it appears probably 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 cerebrate that Pyongyang had make it into a bomb.In November 2002, the CIA went further than its previous estimates, stating, The United States has been touch on about atomic number 7 Koreas desire for nuclear weapons and has assessed since the early 1990s that the northeast has one or possibly two weapons utilize plutonium it produced prior to 1992 (Norris, Kristensen and Handler, March/April 2003).By August 2005, the issue of nuclear proliferation on the Korean peninsula continued to dominate the political landscape. Talks between North Korea and the United States had met with little success, with no narrowing of the prisonbreak between those two countries on North Koreas smooth use of nuclear energy.The United States continued to insist that all of North Koreas nuclear facilities had to be dismantled 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 thwarted nation in war, and we have attached 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 installing a projectile would yield undesirable results. Notably, Japanese thrill MinisterJunichiro Koizumi advised North Korea against test-firing the rocket saying, Japan has been prod North Korea to shutdown the attempt t o launch a projectile. We are making efforts 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 spot 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-hot House press secretary, Tony Snow, said that prexy George W. Bush was consulting with secretaire of State Condoleezza Rice, topic Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Defense Secretary go intoald Rumsfeld on the intimacy. Secretary Rice called on North Korea to return to the multilateral intervention table (Associated Press, 19 June 2006).For its part, North Korea support that it had test-fired a series of missiles and that further missile tests would be launched. North Korean officials as well as warned that they would react strongly to punitive pressures from the global c ommunity. Furthermore, North Korea defiantly defended its right to launch the missiles, saying that it was a matter of subject area sovereignty. That said, geopolitical analysts observed that North Koreas latest moves may have been made for strategic reasons rather than simply as an act of national sovereignty. With the seemingly stroppy stance of North Korea, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 1718 on October 14, 2006.The resolution called for the inspections on cargo dismissal to and from North Korea to search for weapons, a cast away on the sale or assign of materials related to North Koreas bohemian weapons program, and a freeze on the manoeuvre of funds 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 . horizontal though the resolution was approv ed by the United Nations Security Council and welcomed by the outside(a) community, total agreement on the matter of North Korea remained distant (Arms Control at once 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 supranational community. North Korea is flexing its military capabilities by covering off its nuclear weapons. This underscored the need for the nations to unhorse disarming as before long as possible. North Korea may have matt-up an sick threat that they contumacious they moldiness acquire nuclear weapons in parade to catch up to and achieve equalize status with a military gargantuan like the United States.However, their intentions were not well-received by their neighbours be experience North Korea became a threat itself when it decided to push with their nuclear missile tests. Moreover, the world-wide community is frowning upon the real in tentions of these tests, whether North Korea is just out to protect itself or is it a tactical plan to alarm off their neighbours by virtually stating Dont mess up with us, or else Thus, these strategic moves by North Korea efficaciously served to further isolate the country and strengthen its pariah status within the multinational community.As we all know, the effect of nuclear weapons is not limited to political and kindly 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 initially, millions of degrees hot. Some of their first do are heat effects, and materials are a good deal incinerated on contact.The heat from the inject 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 beam, much(prenominal) as neutrons, x-rays, and gamma rays. Humans and other animals close to the centre of the blast suffer sickness 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 topic frequently suffer genetic damage. Finally, a weapons blast releases long 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 utmost analysis, the impending danger of the nuclear interrogatory 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 exertion of nuclear wea pons must be halted soon or civilization itself will be imperilled.On the contrary, some military experts disagree, argumentation that the existence 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 complex issue of nuclear weapons, people should take a closer look at the consequence of the nuclear danger facing the world today 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 memorial tablet or nation.Works CitedAlbright, David and Higgins, Holly. North Korea Its Taking Too Long Inspections in North Korea Are Tied to the nuclear reactor Deal, Which Is Far Behind Schedule, Bulletin of the atomic Scientists, January/February 2002.Arms Control Today Magazine. US Security Council resolution 1718 on North Korea.36.9(Nov 2006 )30(2)Associated Press. North Korea Warned of Possible Retaliation, June 19, 2006. Accessed online 14 declination 2006 at http//www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-06/19/content_620814.htmBBC News. North Korea Talks Near to Deadlock, August 5, 2006 . Accessed online 14 December 2006 at http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4748671.stmFrey, R. J. Nuclear Weapons. M. In Bortman, P. Brimblecombe and MA. Cunningham (eds.), Environmental Encyclopedia, third ed. Detroit Gale, 2003.Kura, Alexandra. Rogue Countries Background and Current Issues. Huntington, NY Nova Science, 2001.Mack, Andrew. Nuclear Endgame on the Korean Peninsula. Canberra, Australia explore School of Pacific Studies, Australian field 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. passage Critical, Defying the World Nuclear-Weapons Proliferation. 381.8500 (Oct 21, 2006) 79.