Tolerance for NKorea, Iran nuclear plans wearing thin

Kim Landers and wires

Last Updated: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:19:00 +1000

US President Barack Obama is calling on world leaders to hold Iran and North Korea accountable for their nuclear programs.

President Obama has used his first address to the UN General Assembly to warn that Iran and North Korea are threatening to take the world down what he calls a "dangerous slope".

"If the governments of Iran and North Korea choose to ignore international standards, if they put the pursuit of nuclear weapons ahead of regional stability and the security and opportunity of their own people, if they are oblivious to the dangers of escalating nuclear arms races in both east Asia and the Middle East, then they must be held accountable," he said.

President Obama says the US is still willing to discuss the issue, but that US patience is not endless.

Prior to his UN address, President Obama said he was confident the US and Russia would meet an end-of-year deadline to agree on a replacement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) nuclear arms reduction treaty.

His Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev also expressed confidence in bilateral talks that both sides would meet the target, saying he was satisfied with the work of negotiators so far.

During Mr Obama's landmark visit to Moscow in July, the two leaders agreed to hammer out a new nuclear arms reduction pact to replace the 1991 START, preferably by the time it expires on December 5.

"Both of us are confident that we can meet our self-imposed deadline" to reach an agreement to reduce the number of nuclear missiles and launchers "by the end of the year," Mr Obama said after the talks at New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel.

Chinese President Hu Jintao also used his speech to the UN to call for "credible steps" to combat nuclear weapons proliferation and push for nuclear disarmament.

Mr Hu however made no direct mention of Iran and North Korea, two countries with which Beijing has close ties but that have been subjected to UN sanctions over their nuclear programs.

"We call on the international community to take credible steps to push forward the nuclear disarmament process, eradicate the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation and promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and related international cooperation," he said.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, meanwhile, has urged the North to come back to nuclear talks to achieve a genuine peace on the Korean peninsula.

"A nuclear weapons free Korean Peninsula must be realised in order to obtain peace in Northeast Asia and beyond," Mr Lee said.

"Denuclearisation is a pre-requisite to paving a path toward genuine reconciliation and unification on the Korean Peninsula which is the only remaining divided region in the world."

President Obama is to chair a special summit at the UN Security Council hoping to reinvigorate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which will be the subject of a key review conference next year.

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