US and Russian nuclear policies as dangerous as North Korea

Ms. Fihn welcomed the upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: AP

Ms Fihn welcomed the upcoming summit between the US and North Korea, in which Washington hopes to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

But she said there needed to be more focus on the threat posed by the United States and other conventional nuclear-armed states, which she said had recently engaged in “dangerous escalations.”

“The new nuclear policies of the United States and Russia, namely the expansion of their arsenals and the production of more useful nuclear weapons, mark very dangerous changes. I think these policies are on a level of danger comparable to the nuclear threat posed by North Korea,” Fihn told reporters in Geneva.

Five of the world's nine nuclear-weapon states - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - are parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which will be subject to a preliminary review in Geneva next week.

However, Ms. Fihn commented, these five countries clearly do not respect the commitments stated in the treaty, and are all involved in the process of modernizing their arsenals as well as making nuclear weapons a central part of their defense strategies.

For example, Washington recently decided to upgrade its nuclear arsenal and supplement large “strategic” bombs with smaller “tactical” weapons, which are easier to use. Ms. Fihn also expressed caution about what concessions North Korea would be willing to make in the upcoming meeting with the US, because she said it would be “very difficult” to convince Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program./.