Nuclear insecurity

World leaders need action, not rhetoric

Leaders of 57 nations and international organizations are in Seoul to strengthen cooperation and enhance nuclear security. The participants represent 80 percent of the world’s population and 90 percent of the global economy.

The attendees at the biennial event are discussing the twin goals of stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and using nuclear energy safely and peacefully.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s initiative for a new global partnership for global nuclear security was timely. He has set ambitions high. There is no indication that global nuclear insecurity has lessened, at least in the eyes of ordinary people since the first summit two years ago in Washington.

North Korea and Iran are eyesores to the global commitments to nuclear non-proliferation challenges. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States concerns grew over nuclear terrorism.

Major nuclear powers, including the United States, China, Russia and France, should set a model for nuclear disarmament to encourage such countries as North Korea and Iran to go down the path of nonproliferation.

North Korea and Iran have become a testing case for Obama’s commitment to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials.

China is crucial in encouraging the North’s denuclearization. Sticks will not be enough. Carrots are necessary to prevent their going nuclear.

In the Sunday summit between Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Obama, they urged the North to scrap its plan to launch a long-range rocket next month. But they failed to prioritize issues in dealing with the Stalinist state. Seoul and Washington should prioritize controlling nuclear materials and weapons over rockets. As Yonsei University professors Moon Chung-in and John Delury stated in The Korea Times Op-Ed Monday, missiles without nuclear warheads constitute a lesser threat.

The Seoul Communique, to be produced today, should include verifiable, not political and rhetorical, pledges to reduce stocks of weapons-grade nuclear materials.

The statement should include how to protect nuclear facilities from accidents or terrorists. Illegal trading of nuclear materials should be stopped.

The Fukushima accident one year ago sent shockwaves worldwide. The disaster showed that human beings have limits in ensuring the 100-percent safety of nuclear power plants. Furthermore, terrorists can easily destabilize the world through attacks on nuclear power plants.

Each country needs to communicate with the people proactively on the safety of nuclear energy and plants.

Transparency of nuclear information is crucial as Japan might have controlled the damage following the Fukushima accident through candid announcements on the real situation there.

Policymakers tend to hide key facts out of blind concern that their candid information might amplify public concern and cynicism. The opposite is true. Frank communication with the people would lessen undue public anxiety.

The Seoul summit should not be an event full of rhetoric and technical jargon. Obama’s vision of a world free from nuclear weapons should become a reality.

World leaders need action before Black Swan nuclear disasters take a toll on human beings. This is time for caution against nuclear complacency.