This letter was
published in abridged form by The Times.
I have pasted
the original as submitted below.
-David
How best to arm
Britain in a changing world
The Times, LETTERS, 3 May 2013
Sir, If I may be permitted to intervene in the debate between General
Sir Hugh Beach (letter,
Apr 23), Admiral Lord West of Spithead (Apr 26), Field Marshal Lord
Bramall (Apr 30) and Vice-Admiral
Sir James Jungius (May 2) on Trident. Each
overlooks the United Kingdom’s longstanding obligations to negotiate nuclear
disarmament in a multilateral forum.
The Foreign Office’s own website states, without qualification, in respect of membership of the 1970 Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT): “States that have nuclear weapons (China, France, Russia, UK and US) agree to work towards nuclear disarmament.”
But the UK, which drafted the NPT in conjunction with the United States and former Soviet Union between 1966-68, in not entering a single nuclear weapon into multilateral disarmament negotiations since the NPT came into force 43 years ago, is also in flagrant breach of Article 6.
Lord West (jointly with Dr Lewis) also mentioned dangers from “rogue states” such as North Korea. But they overlook the fact that North Korea’s Yongbyon plutonium production reactor was built from the publicly available blueprint of the Calder Hall plutonium production reactor at Sellafield. The UK obsession with nuclear technology — civil and military — since the 1950s has had serious security consequences.
Dr David Lowry
Former director, European Proliferation Information Centre
The Foreign Office’s own website states, without qualification, in respect of membership of the 1970 Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT): “States that have nuclear weapons (China, France, Russia, UK and US) agree to work towards nuclear disarmament.”
But the UK, which drafted the NPT in conjunction with the United States and former Soviet Union between 1966-68, in not entering a single nuclear weapon into multilateral disarmament negotiations since the NPT came into force 43 years ago, is also in flagrant breach of Article 6.
Lord West (jointly with Dr Lewis) also mentioned dangers from “rogue states” such as North Korea. But they overlook the fact that North Korea’s Yongbyon plutonium production reactor was built from the publicly available blueprint of the Calder Hall plutonium production reactor at Sellafield. The UK obsession with nuclear technology — civil and military — since the 1950s has had serious security consequences.
Dr David Lowry
Former director, European Proliferation Information Centre
The Editor, letters, The
Times
Sir:
If I may be permitted to intervene on the Letters page debate between General Sir Hugh Beach (Apr 23), Admiral Lord West of Spithead (Apr 26), Field Marshall Lord Bramall (Apr 30) and Vice-Admiral Sir James Jungus (May 2) on Trident, each overlooks the United Kingdom’s long standing obligations to negotiate nuclear disarmament in a multilateral forum..
The Foreign Office’s own
web site states, without qualification, in respect of membership of the
1970 Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), currently under review by
its 189 member states in Geneva, at a two week long meeting due to end on 3
May “States that have nuclear weapons (China, France, Russia, UK and US)
agree to work towards nuclear disarmament.” (https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/countering-weapons-proliferation/supporting-pages/restricting-the-development-of-nuclear-weapons).
But the UK, which actually drafted the NPT in conjunction
with the United States and former Soviet Union between 1966-68, in
not entering a single nuclear weapon into multilateral disarmament
negotiations since the NPT came into force 43 years ago, is
also in flagrant breach of Article 6, which reads in part :
"Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations
in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms
race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.”
Lord West ( jointly with
Dr Lewis) also mentioned dangers from “rogue states” such as North Korea. But
they overlook the fact that North Korea’s Yongbyon plutonium production
reactor was built from the publicly available blueprint of the
Calder Hall plutonium production reactor at Sellafield, which was also used
primarily to produce plutonium for the UK nuclear weapons programme until
closed in 2003.( Hansard 25 May 1994 vol 244 c186W, http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1994/may/25/korea#column_186w)
North Korea’s other method of producing its enriched uranium
nuclear explosives, via its uranium enrichment plant, also originated
from the UK. The blueprints were stolen by Pakistani scientist, Dr A.Q.Khan,
from the URENCO enrichment plant (one third owned by the UK) in
Holland in the early 1970s. Pakistan subsequently sold the technology to Iran,
who later exchanged for North Korean Nodong missiles.
A technical delegation from the A Q Khan Research Labs visited
Pyongyang in the summer of
1996. The secret enrichment plant was said to based in caves near
Kumch’ang-ni, 100 miles north of Pyonyang, some thirty miles north west of the
plutonium production reactor at Yongbon. Defectors have located the plant
at Yongjo-ri, Taechon, Mount Chonma or Ha’gap 20 miles northeast of
Yongbon-kun, where US satellite photos showed tunnel entrances being built
Hwang Jang-yop, a former aid to President Kim Il-sung, the
grandfather of the current North Korean President, who became the highest
ranking North Korean official to defect when he fled in 1997, revealed details
to Western intelligence investigators. ( source p.281 of “Deception: Pakistan,
The United States, and the Global Weapons Conspiracy, Atlantic Books, 2007,
by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark).
The UK obsession with nuclear technology – civil and military -
since the 1950s has had serious security consequences. Current plans by the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to export UK nuclear
technology, unveiled a month ago, are seriously misguided.
Dr David Lowry
Former
director, European Proliferation Information Centre (EPIC)
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