The DPRK has just realised its first nuclear test, thereby confirming its
threats several times uttered since it announced its withdrawal from the
Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003.
This is very alarming!
The answer chosen by the DPRK face to the permanent threat the Bush’s policy
constitutes in its view is irresponsible. It is the worst possible for the
Korean people and peoples worldwide.

This announcement comes confirming that the strategy of permanent strain and
suspicion orchestrated by the United States cannot but result in a more
dangerous world.
The proliferation of countries who have the capacity –or sometimes seek it-
to get atomic weapons is a very serious danger for the present and future.
Being both strategic and political weapons, nuclear weapons unfortunately
appear today as the only means to be recognised as a power that matters and
to ensure a kind of security provided by the fear one fills others with.
Isn’t it the argument employed by de jure nuclear weapons states?

The UN Security Council and the international community as a whole must
remain cool-headed. Anyone embarking on strikes – even supposedly targeted –
would be as culprit as North Korea of foolishly escalating a situation with
indeterminate outcome.
The North Korean people, already victim of a terrible dictatorship, must not
pay for its leaders’ policy. The Korean people’s security must be
guaranteed, as well as peoples’ around.

We must urgently relaunch the international disarmament process! The only
way to counter nuclear proliferation is disarmament. Means to verify it are
up to scratch. The Non-Proliferation Treaty must be fully enforced, included
its Article VI which requires nuclear powers to commit themselves to
disarmament.

French parliamentarians will vote on a Defense budget that includes
programmes to refurbish French nuclear arsenal. France must be audacious and
send tangibles signals. It should freeze its programmes, give up its own
modernisation, and undertake to convene a 4th special session for
disarmament at the United Nations dedicated to complete nuclear disarmament.