Committee Name: General Assembly One
Country Name: Republic of Belarus
Topic : Nuclear non-proliferation in the Korean Peninsula

Nuclear weapons are not a joking matter. With the announcement that North Korea had conducted a successful nuclear test in 2006, 2009, and in 2013 (CNN), that the country had officially become a nuclear state, the Republic of Belarus share the same fear that is being felt across the globe on a daily basis. The delegate understands the threat that it poses to Belarus, as well as the international community as a whole. As a result, the delegate of Belarus strongly oppose any further development of the North Korean nuclear weapons program, and urge the great world powers to take action and stop it altogether.

North Korea built a nuclear complex in the 1960s. In the 1970s, they expanded their plant into a more capable and complex facility. In 1985, they signed the treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction but then dropped out (Aftergood and Kristensen, 2). Since then, they have fired seven ballistic missiles and conducted two nuclear tests, the more recent test defied UN resolutions 1718 and 1695 (Lee, 1).

Belarus is a signer of the NPT Non-Proliferation Treaty and The Republic of Belarus has ratified the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and is showing effort to reduce military arsenals by being a part of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. Also, Belarus has been a State Party of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) too. Although Belarus had possessed nuclear weapons in the past, it has sent them to Russia for proper disposal. As seen from how the Republic of Belarus is in favor of disposing military arsenals, it can be clearly demonstrated how it is eager to urge the disposal of nuclear weapons in the Korean Peninsula.

World-wide there are approximately 30,000 nuclear weapons among various countries and Belarus wants to put a stop to it. (Norris and Kristensen, 1). The delegate of Belarus believes the United Nation should take ban all materials related to nuclear weapons from North Korea, such as, but not limited to, Uranium, Tritium and Deuterium gas, and Plutonium by checking all cargo that comes in and out of North Korea. Also, the Republic of Belarus is in favor of any UN resolutions that would allow UN personals to check all nuclear facilities in North Korea to ensure they are not operational.

There has been numerous attempts by numerous nations to disarm North Korea of nuclear arms. As DPRK started their nuclear tests, United States immediately entered into negotiations with them and had them sign the Geneva Agreed Framework in 1994 (IAEA.org). The Agreed Framework stipulated that the DPRK accept immediate inspections to evaluate the current amount of Plutonium they had refined, along with an immediate halt to their nuclear program. Most of the remaining unprocessed fuel rods were confiscated by the United States, and the DPRK began to disassemble their nuclear program. In exchange, the DPRK would receive 500,000 tons of heavy fuel (iaea.org) and two light water safe reactors for power production. However, after only 3 years, DPRK disobeyed the regulations they had signed on, and started working on their nuclear weapons again.

Belarus also believes that North Korea needs to turn to the six-party talks so that they can continue to have an open line of communication with the UN. Finally, Belarus thinks that North Korea needs to realize that their nuclear weapon tests not just affects them, they are constantly a threat to the international community and should immediately stop the testing and production of nuclear weapons.
Goldschmidt, Pierre, "Major Challenges Currently Facing the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime." 9/26/03. IAEA (www.iaea.org)

Han, Yong-Sup Dr., "North Korea's Nuclear Weapons and Missile Development: Implications for Policy Options." National Defense University, Republic of Korea

Agreed Framework Between the United States of America and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, 10/21/94. Geneva.

IAEA, "IAEA Board of Governors Recommends Landmark Budget Increase - Press Release". 2003. www.iaea.org

Steven Aftergood and Hans M. Kristensen. Fas.org. 11/16/06
<http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/dprk/nuke/index.html>.

Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen, “NRDC Nuclear Notebook: Global Nuclear Stockpiles, 1945-2002.” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. November/December 2002.

Lee, Matthew Russell. Innercitypress.com. UN. 04/09/06
<http://www.innercitypress.com/unsc7dprk040909.html>.