Dear editor,
I am writing with reference to an editorial in The Korea Times, titled “Korea-US Nuclear Deal” wherein a reference has been made to the U.S. having allowed India to reprocess plutonium despite “New Delhi’s defiance of the non-proliferation treaty.”
I would like to point out most respectfully that the actual position is quite different from the one that has been sought to be portrayed. India, in exercise of her sovereign right, never acceded to the non-proliferation treaty, unlike say South Korea, as we found discriminatory. You would appreciate that an agreement or treaty is binding on a nation only when it accedes to it. India’s security environment is among the most complicated in the world. Unlike South Korea, India does not have a security alliance with any nation and is solely responsible for the safety and security of her 1.2 billion people.
It is a well-known fact that India has been a very reluctant nuclear power, after having tried incessantly for decades, to bring about a comprehensive, verifiable and non-discriminatory abolition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from the face of the earth. Furthermore, India has an impeccable track record of non-proliferation which is universally recognized and admired.
I may add that India has only gone-in for credible minimum nuclear deterrence having voluntarily undertaken the commitment of no-first-use, as also not to use them against non-nuclear weapon states. Our commitment to universal, comprehensive and non-discriminatory abolition of WMD remains undiminished.
As such, it is felt that the comparison with and reference to India, in the context of the editorial, is perhaps unwarranted and misleading.
Jeeva K. Sagar
Deputy chief of Indian mission Seoul