Treaties against Nuclear Weapons 

North Korea has launched an intercontinental ballistic missile with enough range to hit the US mainland. North Korea has fired more than 50 missiles over the past two months, most of them short-range. These long-range launches are rarer and pose a direct threat to the US. North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017 and has completed preparations for a seventh.

Nuclear Weapons are the most dangerous weapons on earth, a bomb or missile that uses nuclear energy to cause an explosion. It releases energy either through nuclear fission (atomic bombs) or nuclear fusion (hydrogen bombs). Even a single weapon is capable of destroying a whole city, potentially killing millions, and jeopardizing the natural environment and the lives of future generations. They were used for the first and last time in WW-II by the US in 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

                Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT 1970)

Objectives:

• Prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and their technology.
• Foster peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
• Furthering the goal of nuclear disarmament

Nuclear Member States:

Nuclear-weapon states are those that manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon or nuclear explosive device before 1st January 1967. The treaty recognizes five states as NWS (nuclear-weapon states): the United States, Russia, France, China, and the United Kingdom.

Significance:

Only binding treaty to the goal of disarmament by the NWS.

Not Members

Four UN member states that never joined the NPT are India, Israel, Pakistan, and South Sudan. Three of which India, Israel, and Pakistan are thought to possess nuclear weapons. North Korea accepted the NPT in 1985 but announced its withdrawal in 2003.