Japan submits nuclear abolition resolution for 17th straight yr+

NEW YORK, Oct. 15 Kyodo -
Japan on Thursday submitted a draft resolution calling for the elimination of
nuclear weapons to a disarmament committee of the ongoing U.N. General
Assembly, Japanese diplomats said.
It is the 17th straight year that Japan has submitted a nuclear disarmament
resolution to the United Nations.
Compared with past resolutions, this year's resolution is ''much more
comprehensive with calls for united action,'' Japanese Ambassador to the
Conference on Disarmament Akio Suda said at a news conference after submitting
the document by the noon deadline.
Including the United States, a record of more than 50 countries joined in
Japan's initiative as co-sponsors of the resolution, compared with 42 countries
last year, according to Suda.
He said he expects that even France, which abstained from voting on last year's
resolution, may support this year's document.
Following the successful conclusion of a U.N. conference reviewing the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty in May, Japan has rewritten the content of the
resolution this year, using new and stronger wording, Suda said.
Specifically, the draft ''reaffirms the unequivocal undertaking by the
nuclear-weapon states to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear
arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament.''
It also ''calls upon nuclear-weapon states to undertake further efforts to
reduce and ultimately eliminate all types of nuclear weapons, deployed and
non-deployed, including through unilateral, bilateral, regional and
multilateral measures.''
The resolution is expected to be put to a vote before the committee between
Oct. 26 and Nov. 1. Japan is aiming to garner more support than last year's
record 170 countries, according to U.N. diplomatic sources.
Referring to the ''successful outcome'' of the NPT review conference, the draft
stresses the need to fully implement the action plan the conference adopted.
It mentioned U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's historic visits to Hiroshima
and Nagasaki to mark the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombings, as well as
the April 8 signing of a new nuclear disarmament treaty between Russia and the
United States and a high-level conference on disarmament convened by Ban in
September.
The draft recognizes the ''importance of the objective of nuclear security
along with our shared goals of nuclear disarmament, nuclear nonproliferation
and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.'' It also welcomes the Nuclear Security
Summit that U.S. President Barack Obama called in April to strengthen nuclear
security and reduce nuclear terrorism.
It says North Korea ''cannot have the status of a nuclear-weapon state'' under
the NPT ''under any circumstances.''
The draft also calls upon nuclear-weapon states to ''promptly engage with a
view to further diminishing the role and significance of nuclear weapons in all
military and security concepts, doctrines and policies.''
In 2009, a Japan-proposed nuclear disarmament resolution was adopted at the
assembly's Disarmament and International Security Committee, with the United
States supporting it for the first time in nine years.
The United States also co-sponsored last year's resolution, which specifically
supported moves instigated by Obama with the aim of eventually achieving a
nuclear-free world, for the first time ever.
==Kyodo
2010-10-15 19:21:29