Activist lays out choice: Nukes or world
OSLO, Norway — As long as atomic bombs exist, a disaster is inevitable, the head of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, said Saturday.
“We are facing a clear choice right now: The end of nuclear weapons or the end of us,” Beatrice Fihn said at a news conference at the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
“An impulsive tantrum, a calculated military escalation, a terrorist or cyberattack, or a complete accident — we will see the use of nuclear weapons unless they are eliminated,” she warned.
“These weapons do not make us safe, they are not a deterrent; they only spur other states to pursue their own nuclear weapons. And if you are not comfortable with Kim Jong Un having nuclear weapons, then you are not comfortable with nuclear weapons. If you’re not comfortable with Donald Trump having nuclear weapons, then you are not comfortable with nuclear weapons,” Fihn said.
The campaign, which brings together more than 450 organizations, was a driving force behind an international treaty on banning nuclear weapons that was passed this year. So far, 53 countries have signed up, but only three have ratified it — the treaty needs ratification by 50 to go into effect.
No nuclear power has signed the treaty. Three major nuclear powers — the United States, Britain and France — have said they will not send their ambassadors to today’s Nobel prize-awarding ceremony in the Norwegian capital.