MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th April, 2019) Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump must lead the world away from a possible disaster amid the North Korean nuclear threat, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) organization told Sputnik on Thursday.
The IPPNW is a non-governmental organization awarded the Nobel prize for advocating the elimination of nuclear weapons.
"Presidents Putin and Trump have an historic opportunity, not to mention a legal obligation as depository governments to the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, to lead the world away from the nuclear abyss. The time for the US and Russia to lead a multi-national effort to negotiate a comprehensive, verifiable, and enforceable agreement to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons in the world is long overdue. The world needs a new - and ultimately successful - Reykjavik Summit," IPPNW Executive Director Michael Christ said.
He stressed that the North Korean nuclear program threatens the region and the world in general.
"However, this situation is a symptom of a larger problem: the continued stockpiling and modernization of enormous nuclear arsenals by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, led by the US and Russia which possess more than 90 percent of the nuclear weapons in the world. A policy of 'do as we say, not as we do,' backed by the threat of coercive sanctions or military force, by the US and Russia will only lead to more intransigence and more proliferation," Christ said.
North Korea has been subject to numerous UN sanctions over the past 10 years for its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The sanctions aim at reducing the country's ability to develop its nuclear and missile programs and include a UN Security Council's resolution that bans ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products to North Korea.
