Watchdog reports 2016 drop in nuclear warheads globally

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The global number of nuclear warheads dropped last year, but China, India, North Korea and Pakistan appear to be expanding the size of their atomic arsenals, a Swedish arms watchdog said Thursday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said developments in North Korea’s nuclear program “contributed to international political instability with potentially serious knock-on effects.”

The institute said that as of January the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea together had about 14,935 nuclear weapons, down from 15,395 a year earlier.

The institute listed North Korea as not having any deployed warheads but with 10 to 20 “other warheads” that include “operational warheads held in storage and retired warheads awaiting dismantlement.” The watchdog said the North Korean figures were uncertain.

“Recent steps in the nuclear disarmament field are encouraging,” said Shannon Kile, head of the institute’s Nuclear Weapons Project. “The groundwork laid in 2016 has been built on in 2017, with 122 states approving the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the U.N. in July 2017.”

“The so-called ban treaty is potentially an important milestone on a long-term path toward nuclear disarmament,” he added.

More generally on global security issues, the Stockholm institute noted positive developments such as the entry into force of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and a U.N. General Assembly resolution to start negotiations in 2017 on eliminating nuclear weapons.

However, it said, forced displacement remains a top challenge to human security.

The institute said Africa and the Middle East “together currently host over two-thirds of the world’s displaced population,” adding the number of people displaced last year has “increased significantly” to more than 60 million.

Armed conflicts were the main reason for the displacement crises, the institute said in its 48th edition of its annual yearbook.