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| Subject: Monday 26/3/2012 Tuesday 27/3/2012 | |
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Author: Seoul nuclear security summit |
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Date Posted: 13:12:27 03/27/12 Tue In reply to: Tuesday 27/3/2012 Effective date Titanic week 13 's message, "Open 178.5==low 176.5==volume light==3,291,831==46 blocks software==vwap 1.776" on 12:57:51 03/27/12 Tue The World 'Nuclear terror threat remains', says Barack Obama by: Rick Wallace, Seoul From: The Australian March 28, 2012 12:00AM Increase Text SizeDecrease Text SizePrintEmail Share Add to DiggAdd to del.icio.usAdd to FacebookAdd to KwoffAdd to MyspaceAdd to NewsvineWhat are these? US President Barack Obama, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev share a laugh at the summit yesterday. Picture: AP Source: AP BARACK Obama says the Seoul nuclear security summit has made the world safer but has warned that too much nuclear material remains vulnerable to theft by terrorists. The summit concluded last night with modest progress on safeguarding and reducing nuclear stockpiles and signs of co-operation between major powers on tackling North Korea over its planned missile launch. The first response from North Korea to the barrage of international criticism over the launch emerged with a government spokesman declaring the US President had a "wrong conception" about the launch. Pyongyang vowed to proceed with the launch and urged Mr Obama to drop his "confrontational mindset" in a statement that was lacking in the usual overblown bellicose hyperbole. Mr Obama, who established the nuclear-security summit after declaring in 2009 that he sought a world without nuclear weapons, said the outcomes meant "more of our citizens will be safer from the danger of nuclear terrorism". ..."As a result, more of the world's nuclear material will never fall into the hands of terrorists," he said. "What's also undeniable is that the threat remains. There are still too many bad actors in search of these dangerous materials and these dangerous materials are still vulnerable in too many places. "It would not take much - just a handful or so of these materials - to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people." His comments were echoed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. "Terrorists know neither mercy nor compromise - they will not hesitate for a moment in taking innocent lives to obtain their goals," Mr Lee said. The summit has seen several individual initiatives struck to consolidate nuclear materials in safe locations and to reduce highly enriched uranium usage by using low-enriched alternatives. The US, Belgium, France and The Netherlands agreed to switch to low-enriched uranium for the production of medical isotopes. Nevertheless, Mr Lee said, the world still had enough nuclear material to produce more than 100,000 nuclear weapons, including 1600 tonnes of highly enriched uranium and 500 tonnes of plutonium. Ukraine has agreed to ship the last of its nuclear material back to Russia. Sweden will now give its separated plutonium to the US to help reduce the global number of storage sites. However, a mooted deal to phase out the use of highly enriched uranium in all research reactors in favour of low-enriched fuel by 2015 collapsed over worries about the cost of converting existing reactors. The leaders instead committed to reducing the use of highly enriched fuel, but without a binding target or timeline. Signs suggesting that Mr Hu had bowed to pressure to toughen China's stance against North Korea - which has riled the world with the planned missile test on April 15 - were confirmed by US administration officials. Following South Korean reports of increased signs of co-operation from the Chinese leadership in a bilateral meeting with Mr Lee, the White House revealed that Mr Hu had expressed frustration with North Korea's new leadership to Mr Obama and would press Pyongyang to scrap next month's planned rocket launch. According to US reports, Ben Rhodes, a US deputy national-security adviser who attended the meeting, said the Chinese delegation gave the impression that Beijing wanted to work with the US and its allies "to make it clear to the North Koreans the very grave concerns that the international community has about them going forward with this provocative act". It remains to be seen whether China, Pyongyang's sole political and economic ally, will take real, as well as rhetorical, steps to rein in North Korea. Its resolve is likely to be tested if the launch - which Pyongyang claims is intended to place a satellite in orbit - leads to more sanctions and UN condemnation of North Korea. The speed with which the North broke its deal with the US to refrain from nuclear and missile testing activities has experts and leaders pondering about political stability in North Korea just over 100 days since the death of Kim Jong-il. Additional reporting: agencies [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |