평화군축센터 미분류 2012-02-15   1509

[Press Conference] Towards a Nuclear Free world, NOT Security of Nuclear

Inaugural Press Conference of 

‘People’s Action Against 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit’



Towards a Nuclear Free world, 

                                    NOT Security of Nuclear


기자회견 1.jpg

The 2012 Nuclear Security Summit will be held in Seoul on March 26-27. The Nuclear Security Summit was first held in 2010 at the proposal of the US President Obama, after he called for a ‘nuclear free world’. At the Summit, leaders from 47 nations and international organizations gather to discuss the security of nuclear facilities and the prevention of nuclear terrorism, labeled the greatest danger tonational security. The Lee Myung-bak government, which is planning the Nuclear Security Summit under the slogan of “building a safe and peaceful world”, is also planning a separate ‘Nuclear Industry Summit’. Through these events, the Lee government seeks to dampen anti-nuclear sentiment, which has grown stronger in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and enable its plans to expand the export of nuclear power plants.
 
A safe world requires the immediate elimination of nuclear weapons. To speak about a ‘nuclear free world’ on the one hand while taking about ‘nuclear security’ at a large-scale Summit on the other is a contradiction in terms. The Nuclear Security Summit discusses nuclear terrorism as the greatest existing threat, but this is to mistake a symptom for the main cause. The real threat humankind now faces is the existence of countless nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants and the possibility that nuclear weapons will be used in the name of ‘nuclear deterrence.’ It is precisely because nuclear-haves avoid nuclear arms reductions and refuse to rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons that non-nuclear states are striving at all costs to possess nuclear weapons. What is more, the construction of more and more nuclear power plants in the name of the ‘peaceful use of nuclear energy’ is resulting in the accumulation of massive amounts of nuclear materials, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. The 2,000 tons of enriched uranium and plutonium that now exist around the world are the product of the expansion of nuclear power pant construction.

 

We firmly believe that it is impossible to stop nuclear proliferation by speaking about nuclear security without fundamentally eliminating nuclear weapons and nuclear power. The proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials over the course of the last several decades is not the result of an absence of policies to prevent proliferation. Rather proliferation has occurred because of the accumulation of enough nuclear weapons–weapons of indiscriminate destruction–to annihilate humankind several hundred times over and the stubborn and dangerous refusal to give up nuclear weapons and nuclear energy despite the warning that the Three Miles, Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters have given us. What we need right now is not nuclear security but the safety of the world community, which requires the reduction and abolition of nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants. 

 

We are also extremely concerned that nuclear security measures that are not premised on nuclear disarmament and the end to nuclear power will only serve to strengthen the nuclear hegemony of nuclear-weapons states, rather than preventing nuclear terrorism. The selective and contradictory attitude of the United States and other nuclear-weapons states, which derives from their nuclear monopoly, has not only made the prevention of nuclear proliferation more difficult, it has actually stimulated severe nuclear competition. In particular, the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) led by the United States, and other similar measures for intercepting nuclear materials designed to target North Korea and Iran not only face questions about their legitimacy, but have also succeeded in exacerbated military tensions in East Asia and the Middle East. Pressuring a few target nations with nuclear security measures without discussing nuclear disarmament will only make these nation’s desire to possess nuclear weapons even stronger and further exacerbate nuclear competition, and threaten the peace on East Asia and Middle East as deteriorating conflict over the nuclear.

 

The Lee Myung-bak administration, which seeks to pressure North Korea through the holding of the Nuclear Security Summit, must also be aware of this fact. This is because the Lee administration has stipulated that “the US provides extended deterrance for South Korea including nuclear umbrella”, and it is currently attempting to gain nuclear reprocessing technology through negotiations on the revision of the U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Energy Pact and pursuing nuclear cooperation with India, a country which has produced nuclear while failing to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The government is also seeking to construct new nuclear power plants, extend the lifespan of decrepit ones and use the Fukushima nuclear accident as a golden opportunity to expand nuclear power plant export. These policies, which run completely counter to growing calls for denuclearization, demonstrate clearly that the South Korean government has no interest in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula or the diffusing of nuclear conflict. 

 

In response, the “People’s Action against the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit” urgently calls for not nuclear security, but a NUCLEAR FREE WORLD. We wish to state clearly that it is not nuclear weapons and nuclear materials, but our safety that must be secured. Nuclear weapons should be viewed as the objects of elimination, not protection. We also wish to assert that ‘nuclear security’ is a farce unless nuclear weapon convention, no nuclear threat policy, phase-out of nuclear power plant are discussed and realized. it will only aggravate nuclear proliferation and nuclear competition by strengthening the nuclear monopoly of nuclear-weapons states.

 

We also declare that we will response to the Nuclear Security Summit by organizing actions to demand the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants. We will continue to demand the speedy conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention that prohibits the development, stationing and use of nuclear weapons and make the case for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, nuclear free East Asia and peace systems. We will also make it known that a reduction of dependency on nuclear energy and investment in and development of renewable energy are the only realistic alternative and demand that the attempt to export nuclear power plants, which is no more than the export of nuclear danger, be stopped. At the same time, we wish to state clearly that should the government, which brags about increasing South Korea’s international standing by holding “the largest international meeting on security”, use the Nuclear Security Summit as an excuse to repress freedom of speech and everyday people’s rights, we will counter with aggressive action. 

15 February 2012

People’s Action against the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit
 

 

Ppl’s_action_against_NSS.pdf

 

※ Brief Introduction of the People’s Action against the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit

 

1. Keynote
<Towards a Nuclear Free world, NOT Security of Nuclear>
Against the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit that promotes the nuclear plant and its export
Against the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit that undermines peace
Stop repression on the freedom of expression and the right to life as a pretext for the Summit
Abolish all the nuclear weapon, Realize a peace system
Abolish all the nuclear plant, Switch to renewable energy

 

2. Coming Activities and Events

Date

Event

13 Feb. ~ 12 Mar

Open Weekly Lectures on ‘Nuclear Free World’

15 Feb. ~

Series of Columns

07 Mar.

Public Lecture on the Nuclear Security Summit

10 Mar.

Assembly on the Fukushima Nuclear disaster 2011 (Seoul City Hall Plaza)

19~27 Mar

People’s Action Days against the Nuclear Security Summit

19 Mar.

Press Conference for the nuclear power plant free Asia

22 Mar.

International forum for nuclear free world

2012 No Nukes Asia Forum

23 Mar.

People’s action against the Nuclear Industry Summit

23~24 Mar.

Hapcheon Anti-Nuclear & Peace Festival 2012 : hand in hand with nuclear victims toward Hapcheon!

25 Mar.

Assembly for the nuclear free world

26~27 Mar.

Peace actions against the Nuclear Security Summit

 

3. Info.
 – web-site : www.no-nss.org
 – facebook : http://facebook.com/nonss2012
 – twitter : @no_nss

 

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