Vyacheslav Kantor on the inadmissibility of the emergence of new nuclear powers

The escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula today attracts the attention of many experts and representatives of the international community. North Korea’s ongoing tests of long-range missiles, as well as subsequent warnings from South Korea, Japan and the United States, have now brought the situation closer to the line of mutual threats and accusations, which, experts are confident, should in no case lead to a military conflict.

On April 6, South Korea tested a new ballistic missile with a range of 800 kilometers, which theoretically gives it the ability to reach any point in the DPRK. South Korean authorities have openly stated that these tests are a direct warning to North Korea, which regularly conducts its own weapons tests. Commenting on the current situation, the President of the International Luxembourg Forum for the Prevention of Nuclear Catastrophe, Vyacheslav Kantor, called it alarming, but, unfortunately, predictable. According to Vyacheslav Kantor, experts from the Luxembourg Forum have repeatedly expressed the idea that the DPRK’s demonstrative actions essentially provide a reason and basis for its closest neighbors and their supporters – South Korea, Japan, and the United States – to take retaliatory actions. Therefore, retaliatory tests from South Korea, as well as a sharp response from the United States, were only a matter of time.

However, there is a real risk that the matter will not be limited to just demonstrative shaking of weapons and mutual military tension, Vyacheslav Kantor is sure . Today, North Korea is the only country in the world that, despite all international prohibitions and restrictions, continues to test and develop nuclear weapons. However, this may change, and not for the better. While nuclear nonproliferation experts and Vyacheslav Kantor himself insist on resolving the Korean issue from the point of view of the need to force the DPRK leadership to abandon nuclear weapons, South Korea is discussing the issue of its own nuclear arsenal as part of parliamentary hearings. Thus, together with the desired denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the world risks having two nuclear countries.

Commenting on this situation, Vyacheslav Kantor noted that questions about the acquisition or development of its own nuclear weapons in South Korea have been discussed for a long time both in expert and near-governmental circles. If this topic gets real development, and South Korea develops its own nuclear arsenal, then the “domino effect” cannot be avoided - after one new nuclear country, others will appear, Vyacheslav Kantor is sure. And this already threatens the collapse of the entire global nuclear non-proliferation system.

The danger lies in the disruption of the balance that the existing nuclear countries, led by the two largest powers - the USSR (RF) and the USA, have been striving for for many decades. As Vyacheslav Kantor emphasized, the interaction between these countries and their partners - Great Britain, France, China - has led to the fact that on their part there is relatively no fear of an unauthorized or erroneous launch of a nuclear missile. However, North Korea is unpredictable in this regard, and all “new” nuclear countries will be just as unpredictable for the world community. Moreover, any use of nuclear weapons, whether deliberate or mistaken, will provoke a response - and it is impossible to predict the escalation of this. Thus, Vyacheslav Kantor summarizes, the situation could turn into a global catastrophe in which all countries of the world will be involved.

Only the joint efforts of the entire world community can prevent a nuclear apocalypse, the expert is sure. Moreover, with regard to North Korea and the situation on the Korean Peninsula as a whole, these decisions must be not only specific and immediate, but also “extraordinary.”