S. Korea Demands Action to Address N. Korea’s Nuclear Program

(MENAFN) South Korea issued an urgent call Tuesday for coordinated international pressure on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, warning that Pyongyang poses the gravest threat to the world's nuclear containment framework, media reported.

Vice Foreign Minister Jeong Yeon-doo delivered the warning at a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in New York, asserting that North Korea represents an unparalleled challenge — one that deepened after the regime renounced the treaty and accelerated its weapons program unchecked.

"The DPRK is the only case that has benefited from the NPT regime, announced its withdrawal, and openly continued the development of nuclear weapons, thereby remaining the most pressing challenge to the nonproliferation regime," Jeong said.

Jeong pressed world leaders to speak with one voice, stressing that Pyongyang's path to security and economic stability runs exclusively through re-engagement with the treaty's framework — not defiance of it.

The senior diplomat also directed sharp criticism at Russia, demanding an immediate halt to its military cooperation with North Korea. Jeong cautioned that such collaboration actively erodes UN Security Council resolutions and destabilizes the global nonproliferation order.

The NPT, a foundational disarmament accord in effect since 1970, obligates signatory nations to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation while supporting peaceful nuclear energy use. Member states convene every five years to evaluate compliance — a process North Korea's continued defiance has increasingly strained.

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