Arms Control Now Blog

Authored by on March 11, 2013

The United Nations Security Council passed a unanimous resolution imposing a new round of sanctions on North Korea following the country's February 12 nuclear test explosion. These sanctions are particularly noteworthy because they were drafted by the United States in concert with China, Pyongyang's closest ally and supporter. This is the fourth set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since the country's first nuclear test in 2006. The resolution imposes new financial sanctions, which require states to block financial transactions that could contribute to North Korea's weapons programs…

Authored by on February 27, 2013

According to a February 26 Global Security Newswire story, the recent North Korean nuclear test "brought fresh attention to the capabilities" of the CTBTO's monitoring system. The CTBTO's International Monitoring System (IMS) was able to detect the North Korean nuclear test within moments and forwarded information from its seismic and infrasound stations to state parties just over an hour after the explosion. The IMS was also able to record the February 15 meteor explosion over the Ural Mountains in Siberia with 17 of its 45 infrasound stations. The IMS currently employs 274 certified…

Authored by on February 27, 2013

Ambassador Pickering called for U.S. leadership on the CTBT in a February 20 opinion editorial in The Christian Science Monitor. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and under secretary of state for political affairs called for the White House to "launch a high-level push for ratifying the treaty" and urged the Senate to provide its advice and consent on the test ban treaty. Pickering pointed out that the United States has not conducted a nuclear test in over 20 years and reiterated the fact that Washington has "no technical or military need to do so ever again." Ambassador…

Authored by on February 12, 2013

By Daryl G. Kimball and Greg Thielmann The DPRK's Punggye-ri nuclear test site April 18, 2012. The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has apparently conducted its third nuclear test explosion, defying the explicit demands of the UN Security Council and the international community that it "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner." The Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Tibor Toth, issued the following statement on Feb. 12 at 04:19:17 CST: "Today our…

Authored by on February 12, 2013

The government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has apparently conducted its third nuclear test explosion, defying the explicit demands of the UN Security Council and the international community that it “abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.” The Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Tibor Toth, issued the following statement on Feb. 12 at 04:19:17 CST: “Today our monitoring stations picked up evidence of an unusual seismic event in the Democratic People’s…

Authored by on February 5, 2013

Sandia National Laboratories recently tested an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), nicknamed "Harvester," for use in detecting nuclear test explosions. The UAV's airborne pods are equipped with radiation sensors and debris samplers, which can track radiation to its source and use particulates and gases to identify the location of a nuclear test explosion, according to a press release from Sandia. Harvester differs from traditional nuclear test monitoring technology in that it actively investigates sources of radiation, as opposed to the immobile monitoring stations used by the United States…

Authored by on February 5, 2013

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) announced this week that the organization is able to detect seismological activity in North Korea "within minutes" of an explosion. Following North Korea's previous nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, the CTBTO was able to determine "within a couple of hours" of each event that they were explosions, not earthquakes. According to Annika Thunborg, a spokeswoman for the CTBTO, it will take the organization several days to verify that the event was a nuclear test explosion, as opposed to an exceptionally large conventional explosion. This…

Authored by on January 23, 2013

The Advisory Committee of the Confidentiality of National Defense has approved the declassification of 58 documents related to radiation levels in French Polynesia during and after French nuclear test explosions. France conducted 4 atmospheric and 13 underground nuclear tests in Algeria and 46 atmospheric and 147 underground nuclear tests at the Mururoa and Fangataufa Atolls in the Pacific. French nuclear test veterans have long struggled to obtain compensation from their government for ailments that they believe resulted from exposure to radioactive fallout. Access to the nuclear testing…

Authored by on January 23, 2013

Today, the North Korean government released a statement through the Korean Central News Agency condemning the most recent UN Security Council resolution (S/RES/2087) directed at Pyongyang. The UNSC resolution expands the list of sanctioned entities in response to the most recent North Korean satellite launch, which occurred on Dec. 12, 2012. Although the resolution did not authorize a new round of sanctions, it demanded that Pyongyang refrain from conducting subsequent launches "using ballistic missile technology." It also instructed the country to comply with previous council resolutions…

Authored by on January 23, 2013

In a major speech on Jan. 18, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke on a range of nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation issues at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California. He touched on the international community's achievements on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, outlined the challenges that lay ahead, and called for renewed action on key priorities including the CTBT: The Secretary-General said, "We must intensify efforts to bring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty into force. I urge the remaining eight states whose ratification is…