NATO denounces North Korea nuclear test as a grave threat to world peace

NATO condemned North Korea's underground nuclear weapon test on Tuesday, calling it an "irresponsible act" and a flagrant violation of UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.
 
North Korea's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction represented continued defiance of the UNSC, the North Atlantic Council, made up of NATO ambassadors, said in a statement.
 
"This irresponsible act, along with the December missile launch, poses a grave threat to international and regional peace, security and stability," it said, urging North Korea to "cease immediately such provocative actions".
 
The test was North Korea’s third within the last six years and challenges efforts to strengthen global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. UNSC resolution 1874, adopted on 12 June 2009, condemned the nuclear test conducted by North Korea in May 2009, while the unanimously adopted UNSC resolution 2087 of 22 January 2013 explicitly warned the regime to abstain from nuclear testing. 
 
NATO Watch director Ian Davis said, “It is essential that all countries join and respect the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).  Nuclear testing needs to end once and for all. There is broad international support for the early entry into force of the CTBT, which will establish a permanent legal ban against all kinds of nuclear explosions”. 
 
A total of 183 States, representing the vast majority of the international community, have signed the CTBT, and of these, 159 countries have also ratified the Treaty. To enter into force, however, the CTBT must be signed and ratified by 44 specific States. These States participated in the negotiations of the Treaty in 1996 and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at the time. Thirty-six of these States have ratified the Treaty, including the three nuclear weapon States -France, Russia and the United Kingdom. Of the eight remaining States, China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States have signed the Treaty, whereas North Korea, India and Pakistan have not yet signed it.