North Korea’s Nuclear Test a Reaction to Violation of NPT

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- An Iranian Foreign Ministry diplomat stressed that the nuclear test North Korea has conducted should be considered as a strong reaction to the long-time repetition of the blatant violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by the western states in the last 25 years.

Speaking to FNA here on Sunday, Mahmoud Mehdi Soltani said attention must be paid to the very fact that the nuclear test carried out by North Korea is a domestic issue of that country, the correctness or incorrectness of which should be viewed under the national authority and sovereignty of that country.

He said that the different approaches towards North Korea and the Zionist Regime are an indication of the West’s double-standards.

Soltani reminded that there exists no law or regulation in the legal regime dominating the international community, which bans nuclear tests, adding, “And the Comprehensive Nuclear Tests Ban Treaty (CTBT) which was signed by a number of countries in New York 10 years ago has never turned into a binding agreement at the international level.”

Meantime, he said both the NPT and the articles of association of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) allow all the member states to conduct nuclear tests for peaceful purposes, “And we do not yet know that the test Koreans have carried out is in line with military or peaceful purposes.”

The diplomat said all the hues and cries westerners are making about the nuclear test of North Korea are aimed at depriving that country of its rights.

“Western states, particularly the US, are striving to block progress of all countries, including Iran. And the most important field they are worried about is the field of the nuclear energy. That’s why you can see all these propaganda launched against every country which is opposed to the United States and is trying to reach nuclear capability,” he concluded. 

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