On August 6, 1945, a US B-29 bomber departed from Tinian, a small island in the Pacific Ocean. Six hours later, it unleashed its cargo above the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In the words of a young survivor,
"That morning at school, we played hide and seek in the yard while Japanese soldiers were drilling nearby. I was counting with my eyes closed, and when I counted to eight I saw a flash, a pure white flash, through my closed eyes. There was a total silence, an eerie dead silence, and then a roaring sound began like thousands of tanks rumbling through a sandstorm. I felt the pressure, the heat, the dark smoke and the fire leaping like the tongue of a serpent. I was weeping, and Toshi, my best friend Toshi, who was not 10 feet away from me, he just disappeared."
Over 70,000 people were killed by the atomic blast. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, killing over 35,000 people. Thousands more died in the years that followed from radiation exposure.
While some efforts to regulate the proliferation of arms occurred prior to 1945, it was the detonation of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki that compelled the international community to aggressively pursue arms control.
The United Nations has played an integral role in the process of arms control and disarmament. Indeed, the UN Charter recognizes the importance of arms control and disarmament and the role of UN institutions in addressing these issues. Article 11 provides for the competence of the General Assembly to deal with "the principles governing disarmament and the regulation of armaments." Similarly, Article 26 provides that the Security Council shall be responsible for formulating plans "for the establishment of a system for the regulation of armaments." On this basis, the General Assembly and Security Council have adopted numerous resolutions on a variety of arms control issues.
In addition, the United Nations has established several specialized agencies to examine arms control and disarmament issues. The UN General Assembly's first resolution in January 1946 established a commission to deal with the problems raised by the discovery of atomic energy. The commission was also responsible for examining how to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction from national armaments. In 1947, the Security Council established the Commission on Conventional Armaments to examine the problem of conventional disarmament. Neither commission proved effective due to the increasing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. As a result, the General Assembly established a single Disarmament Commission in 1952. This new commission would examine both weapons of mass destruction and conventional armaments. In addition, a separate Committee on Disarmament was established outside the formal framework of the United Nations. In 1984, it was renamed the Conference on Disarmament. The goal of these agencies is to provide forums for discussion on arms control issues and the exchange of information.
The United Nations has also participated in the development of several arms control agreements. One of the most significant arms control agreements sponsored by the United Nations with respect to weapons of mass destruction is the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The treaty was adopted by the General Assembly on June 12, 1968 and entered into force in March 1970. It seeks to prevent the acquisition and deployment of nuclear weapons by states that do not currently possess them. It establishes strict procedures for the acquisition of nuclear technology and authorizes the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify that all member states are complying with the treaty.
In 1995, the parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty met to review the continued operation of the agreement. Most states desired to extend the operation of the treaty indefinitely. A number of states, however, voiced their opposition to an indefinite extension. They criticized the slow pace of disarmament by the declared nuclear states. They also criticized the inequity of the agreement because it allowed several states to possess nuclear weapons and yet precluded other states from acquiring them, thereby placing non-nuclear states at a disadvantage. Despite these concerns, the member states agreed to indefinitely extend the application of the treaty on May 11, 1995.
The most significant threat of noncompliance to the Non-Proliferation Treaty occurred with respect to North Korea. In early 1993, the IAEA suspected that North Korea had concealed nuclear material at several locations, including Yongbyon. It also suspected that North Korea had engaged covertly in the separation of significant quantities of weapons- grade uranium. On February 9, 1993, the International Atomic Energy Agency demanded that North Korea provide immediate access to its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. Despite repeated requests by the IAEA, North Korea refused access to the sites at Yongbyon. On March 12, 1993, North Korea notified the UN Security Council of its intent to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, effective three months later. On April 1, 1993, the IAEA declared its intention to report North Korea's noncompliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty to the Security Council. After extensive diplomatic negotiations, North Korea suspended its withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty on June 11, 1993. After further negotiations, North Korea agreed to stop its nuclear weapons program in exchange for the acquisition of two nuclear reactors and related technology.
Arms control and disarmament efforts are not limited to nuclear weapons. All weapons of mass destruction are subject to arms control efforts. The UN Commission for Conventional Armaments defined weapons of mass destruction as "atomic explosive weapons, radioactive material weapons, lethal chemical and biological weapons, and any weapons developed in the future which have characteristics comparable in destructive effect to those of the atomic bomb or other weapons mentioned above." Thus, the United Nations participated in the negotiation and adoption of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and the recently concluded 1992 Chemical Weapons Convention. These international agreements prohibit the acquisition, development, possession or use of biological and chemical weapons.
In addition to these multilateral efforts, the United Nations also supports regional and bilateral arms control and disarmament efforts. The General Assembly has adopted several resolutions encouraging regional arrangements. Thus, it supported the 1967 Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, also known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco, and the 1985 South Pacific Nuclear Free One Treaty. Similarly, the General Assembly has supported bilateral efforts such as those taken by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. For example, the General Assembly adopted several resolutions supporting bilateral negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of strategic weapons.
Despite these extensive efforts at arms control and disarmament, weapons of mass destruction continue to threaten the international community. As the plaintive wail of air raid sirens warning of ballistic missile attacks during conflicts like the 1991 Gulf War remind us, the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains.
