2016-04-01 09:00:00

North Korea tops agenda at 2016 Nuclear Security Summit


(Vatican Radio)  Concerns about North Korea's ambitions and the threat of terrorism topped the agenda at the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. U.S. President Barack Obama is holding a series of key bilateral and trilateral meetings in addition to the summit itself.

Listen to Priscilla Huff's report:

The 2016 Nuclear Security Summit began with one major achievement on the table. The agreement between Iran and the international community on its nuclear programme. 

Now, Sharon Squassoni of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says, this summit needs to focus on another goal - securing radioactive materials which could be used in a dirty bomb.

"It's just simply maybe a medical radio isotope that you use for cancer therapy, you wrap it in explosives and then you set it off, as a terror device. There's a lot more to be done of strengthening the security of those sources and these summits have done a little bit on that but there's more to be done."

US President Barack Obama started his day with with a trilateral meeting between Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korea's President Park Gyun Hye.

"Because of the topic of this summit, the Nuclear Security Summit, it's not surprising that one of the topics most on our minds is the issue of North Korea.  And we are united in our efforts to deter and defend against North Korean provocations.  We recognize that our security is linked, that we have to work together to meet this challenge.  And we also recognize that it is important to the entire international community to vigilantly enforce the strong U.N. security measures that were passed in light of some of the ballistic missile and nuclear activity that Pyongyang has been engaging in."

During his bilateral meeting with China's President Xi Jinping, President Obama repeated this pledge to hold North Korea to account, as well as addressing another pressing issue: The United States and China have established a relationship when it comes to nuclear security, and that includes China's new Nuclear Security Center of Excellence.  I believe we can deepen our cooperation, including against nuclear smuggling.

But experts point out a small transfer of nuclear technology can make a big difference, as was seen when North Korea supplied information and know-how to Syria.

U.S. Ambassador Robert Galluci has held a series of top positions, negotiating American priorities on nuclear technology. "But what is starting is, the possibility that Japan, if it starts, a reprocessing plant, Ukoshu(?) next year, would have an 800-ton plant which would be producing thousands of kilograms of plutonium and that plutonium would be cycling all around Japan, fueling reactors, all over the country. What could go wrong?"

It's precisely this idea the threat of a small amount of radioactive material such as plutonium going missing and possibly becoming part of a dirty bomb that's on the menu as leaders from more than 50 nations hold a working dinner at the White House.

Seven years after he first outlined his vision for a nuclear-free future, U.S. President Barack Obama wrote in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post this summit is just one of many concrete steps being made toward a world without nuclear weapons.

But even as the discussions about securing nuclear technology and radioactive material continue the American president knows, there's a long road ahead.








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