U.S. Urges Penalties for NPT Withdrawals

The United States yesterday called on members of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to establish penalties for nations that withdraw from the pact, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 8).

Washington offered the proposal at a treaty meeting in Vienna that resumed yesterday after being stalled for more than a week over an agenda dispute.  Iran had feared that the agenda’s original wording would target Tehran and not the disarmament obligations of nuclear-weapon states.

That concern might have had some validity, as several Western powers focused on Iran and North Korea while describing threats to the treaty’s effectiveness, Reuters reported.

U.S. delegation leader Christopher Ford’s statement to the conference yesterday highlighted both nations as examples of the need for deterring withdrawals from the treaty.  North Korea announced its withdrawal from the treaty in 2003, and Iran has repeatedly warned that it too could pull out if the U.N. Security Council continues to impose economic sanctions against Tehran.

“It's important to make withdrawal such (as North Korea's) unattractive before other violators are tempted to follow such a course,” Ford said.  Or else, “treaties such as the NPT could quickly become dangerously hollow formalisms.”

Ford mentioned several possible penalties that could be levied against nations that abandon the treaty, including cutting off future nuclear sales, requiring the return of already provided technology and materials, and the prospect of Security Council sanctions, Reuters reported (Mark Heinrich, Reuters, May 9).

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