World-Wide Protests Against New US Nuclear Test

Japanese associations of victims of the 1945 American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki sent letters of protest on May 14 to US Ambassador to Tokyo Rahm Emanuel and President Joe Biden against a new nuclear test conducted on Tuesday at the Nevada Test Site (NNSS/NTS). According to a statement from the National Nuclear Security Administration, the experiment, the third during Biden’s term, was conducted to gather “necessary data” on the actual capabilities of the nation’s nuclear warheads. US authorities also emphasized that it was “not a real nuclear explosion” but a so-called “subcritical test” that did not violate the moratorium on nuclear testing declared by the White House and the Kremlin in 1992.

The new nuclear test in Nevada drew a very strong reaction from North Korea, which said it was “compelled to take appropriate measures to strengthen nuclear deterrence.” A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, quoted by North Korea’s KCNA news agency, said the subcritical US nuclear test leads to escalation of the global nuclear arms race, and Pyongyang is forced to take necessary measures. “The nuclear test creates new tensions in the military stalemate between nuclear powers and accelerates a global nuclear arms race. This nuclear test must be prevented at all costs from jeopardizing military security in the Korean Peninsula region. To prepare for strategic instability arising in the region and globally due to unilateral US actions, we are compelled to take the necessary measures to enhance overall preparedness for nuclear deterrence within our sovereign right and possible choices,” the spokesman said.