UN committee adopts Japan-led resolution on nuclear abolition
With 150 countries in favour, the text presses nuclear-weapon states to honour disarmament duties and urges North Korea to return to the NPT.
- A UN committee approved a Japan-led resolution for the abolition of nuclear weapons, which is expected to be formally adopted by the General Assembly.
- The resolution calls on nuclear-weapon states to engage in disarmament negotiations and specifically urges North Korea to rejoin the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
- The text passed with 150 votes in favor, but was opposed by seven countries, including China and Russia, while the United States and France were among 25 nations that abstained.
- This is the 33rd consecutive year that the General Assembly has approved such a resolution.
The UN General Assembly is expected to formally adopt a Japan-led resolution seeking to abolish nuclear weapons at a plenary meeting in early December, after its First Committee approved the text by majority vote.
North Korea is urged to return to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and comply fully with both the treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards as soon as possible.
The resolution specifies that the country “cannot be recognized as a nuclear-weapon state”.
To “fully implement their obligations”, nuclear-weapon states are called on to engage in disarmament negotiations.
The resolution also records the absence of consensus at the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which closed in May.
A first review conference is scheduled for November this year under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
In the resolution, reference to that treaty extends only to its adoption in 2017 and entry into force in 2021.
In the disarmament committee, 150 countries supported the text and 25 abstained, among them the United States and France.
Opposition came from seven countries, including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
The General Assembly’s approval of resolutions of this kind now spans 33 consecutive years.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
