Topic: Korean Peninsula
Country: South Africa
Delegate Name: Henry Whittier-Ferguson
School: Ann Arbor Community High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All South Africa position papers GLIMUN 2007 committees
Following the recent nuclear tests performed by North Korea, many countries have taken action to urge the Korean government to discontinue the current nuclear research, and to destroy all of its weapons. One of the foremost promoters of this strategy is South Africa. As the only country to fully disarm and terminate all nuclear programs, many have urged South Africa to try and persuade North Korea to disarm, and that is what we intend to do.
South Africa was once in a position similar to that of North Korea, and was in possession of 6 Nuclear Warheads until president F.W. de Klerk ended the program in 1989. In 1991, South Africa signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and entered into a comprehensive safeguard agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency. In 1993, President de Klerk revealed the details of the weapons program, fully bringing the initiative to an end.
Tom Wheeler, the chief operations officer at the South African Institute for International Affairs had the following to say on the issue: “We have this moral high ground position in the world, when we speak, people listen to what we say because we have been through this and we have done it well.” South Africa feels that because it is one of the few countries to have been through a similar situation, we can help North Korea with its own nuclear decisions, and hopefully bring them to the only sensible conclusion: To disarm.
“One wonders if anybody is influential enough to influence the North Koreans, But you know if you come in friendship and you say we really do not think this is a wise way to go, perhaps you can have some influence that way.” said Wheeler. South Africa knows that the talks will not be easy, but feels that if we can make any difference in North Koreas decision, it will be utterly worth it.
It is essential that more countries do not develop weapons of mass destruction due to the possibility of an escalation capable of ending civilization as we know it, and it would be preferable if nations with existing stockpiles would destroy them. Although the fear of Mutually Assured Destruction came to a head during the cold war, the possibility still exists that 2 or more countries would effectively destroy each other, and South Africa feels that the smaller this chance is, the better.
Although we have no problem with the development of Nuclear Capabilities for peaceful purposes, such as power plants, we would like countries to not progress on to building weapons of mass destruction, and we implore North Korea to reconsider its choice to build and test warheads without consent from the United Nations.
