President Barack Obama peers across what is considered one

of the most dangerous pieces of earth in the world, on his first

visit to the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea,

Mar. 25.

The Hankyoreh, South Korea

Nuclear Summit in Seoul Must Resist ‘Nuclear Power Mafia’

“There are questions about whether the first summit to be held in Seoul since the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear accident properly reflects the fundamental doubts the disaster has raised about the capacity of human beings to manage nuclear power. The 200 or so attendees at the summit all have their own vested interests and collectively have been referred to by critics as a 'nuclear power mafia.'”

EDITORIAL

March 25, 2012

South Korea - The Hankyoreh – Original Article (English)

The two-day Nuclear Security Summit is set to begin in Seoul on Monday. The summit, which comes two years after the first such event in Washington, D.C., is taking place a year after the Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster in Japan, a catastrophe that continues to unfold. Spearheaded in Prague by U.S. President Barack Obama in April 2009 when he issued a call for a world without nuclear weapons, the meeting might be characterized as an effort to adopt measures to prevent nuclear terrorism.

The issue of safely managing nuclear power is also expected to be a major topic of discussion, and nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea are also likely to be discussed.

We certainly hope the summit achieves the hoped-for outcome. But there are doubts that it will – in addition to concerns that the meeting will end up bolstering both the existing arrangements among the nuclear powers - and the nuclear threat itself. That is because the summit takes the established interests of the five major nuclear powers for granted.     

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

While there have been independent efforts to discuss strategic arms (i.e.: nuclear arms) reductions, one gets the sense that these efforts have been but gestures. The United States has yet to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty and continues to conduct subcritical nuclear testing. This problem cannot be resolved when America maintains the contradictory approach of guarding its own nuclear interests while clamoring to ban nuclear development or capabilities elsewhere.

This is no way to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. This is not unrelated to the fact that India, Pakistan and Israel now possess nuclear weapons, while North Korean and Iran have launched their own nuclear efforts. There is a clear limit to how a strategy of preventing proliferation and terrorism can succeed, while those who espouse such hopes continue to safeguard their own nuclear capabilities.

There are also questions about whether the first summit to be held in Seoul since the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear accident properly reflects the fundamental doubts the disaster has raised about the capacity of human beings to manage nuclear power. The 200 or so attendees at the summit all have their own vested interests and collectively have been referred to by critics as a "nuclear power mafia." Among them are CEOs of the world's nuclear power companies and heads of related international organizations.

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Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany: Secret of America's Counterfeit 'Supernotes'

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Korean Central, North Korea: 'Japanese Militarists' Prepare for Reinvasion of Korea

The South Korean government has refused to permit foreign activists seeking to represent citizen campaigns against nuclear power into the country. In the wake of Fukushima, this shows that we’re a long way from achieving an effective global movement to find an alternative to nuclear power.

The ideas suggested by the [South Korean] government, which include improving systems for managing radiation disasters, technology for nuclear plant safety and enrichment, and information processing, come across as a superficial ploy. It appears that the Seoul summit is to be used as an opportunity to usher in a "nuclear power renaissance."

This defies the apocalyptic warning that Fukushima disaster offered humanity. At a moment that could mark a turning point in human history, we hope that the summit attendees do not turn this major global event into an opportunity to merely boost profits, or a forum to politically denounce North Korea.