CTBTO Newsroom

CTBTO invites journalists to a press conference today, 25 April, at 9:30 in Room III of the NPT Preparatory Committee in Geneva.

CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo will be speaking about the announcement by the DPRK to halt nuclear testing and dismantle the test site.

The press conference will also be streamed live on the UN Web TV website: http://webtv.un.org/

Vienna, 21 April 2018

“I welcome the announcement by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to halt its nuclear testing programme and to dismantle the test site. This is a strong signal and an important step in the right direction.

As a next step, the DPRK, along with the other remaining Annex 2 countries, should consider signing and ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) to solidify this progress. A legally binding in force CTBT is the only way to solidify the moratorium on nuclear testing and an essential step towards the ultimate goal: a world free from nuclear weapons.

The CTBTO stands ready to assist in whatever way we can.”

Several international mainstream media sources have picked up Zerbo’s statement whilst elaborating on the DPRK announcement, including Washington Post, InDepthNews, The Wire, Politico EU, Yonhap in Korean, La Vanguardia in Spanish, ABC Nyheter in Norwegian, ANSA in Italian, Realitatea in Romanian, among others.

William Perry and other US delegates at the Juche Tower in Pyongyang, North Korea in May 1999. Photograph: Anonymous/AP

In this 34-minute podcast in The Guardian, written by Julian Borger and read by Andrew McGregor, Borger explores the nuances of diplomacy and whether the 1999 US mission to Pyongyang could have prevented the development of North Korea’s nuclear programme. Former defence secretary Matthew Perry led the mission, following a fraying 1994 agreement between Washington and Pyongyang, in the hope of seeing whether diplomacy with North Korea was even a possibility. “Looking back on Perry’s mission today, the question is whether the experiment failed, or whether it was closed down for political reasons before it had a chance to succeed.” Borger recounts the historic event, and examines this question both from Perry’s view, as well as from John Bolton’s viewpoint, the current US National Security Advisor.

The text version is available here.