 JCP to North Korea: Give up nuclear weapons The Japanese Communist Party has urged North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program in reaction to the North Korean announcement that it has "manufactured nukes." In a published statement on February 10, Ichida Tadayoshi, JCP Secretariat head, stated as follows: On February 10, the North Korean Foreign Ministry published a statement to announce that it has "manufactured nukes for self-defense." The reason it gave for maintaining nuclear weapons was to counter the U.S. policy of "stifling the DPRK" in the name of the "Songun politics to respond to good faith and the use of force in kind." However, going ahead with a nuclear program will not only be damaging to the peace and security of East Asia but disadvantageous to North Korea's peace and security per se. I would like to stress that North Korea should seek to ensure that it can maintain peace and security through establishing acceptable diplomatic relations with neighboring countries instead of by trying to "respond to the use of force in kind". The JCP has criticized the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) regime as one that ensures that particular countries can have a monopoly over nuclear weapons. This position stems from the call for a total ban on nuclear weapons. This call, shared by a great majority of the world today, tolerates no attempt to join the nuclear club for whatever reason. The JCP urges North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program in order to establish Asia's international relations for peace and stability, contribute to the abolition of nuclear weapons, and respond to the wishes of nations for peace. (end) |