The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, directly challenged nations with nuclear weapons to give up their “status symbols” in his keynote address to an October 24 East-West Institute conference. Saying “a world free of nuclear weapons would be a global public good of the highest order,” Ban (who is from South Korea) urged the nuclear weapons states to multilaterally eliminate their arsenals. “Nuclear weapons produce horrific, indiscriminate effects. Even when not used, they pose great risks. Accidents could happen at any time. The manufacture of nuclear weapons can harm public health and the environment. And of course, terrorists could acquire nuclear weapons or nuclear material.”
Noting that the very first General Assembly resolution, in 1946, called for eliminating “weapons adaptable to mass destruction,” Ban urged both nuclear weapons states and non-nuclear weapons states to pursue his five point proposal to “revitalize the international disarmament agenda.” In this proposal, Ban endorsed the Hans Blix proposal for a “World summit on disarmament, non-proliferation and terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction.”
According to the Secretary-General,”when disarmament advances, the world advances.” Ban delivered his remarks at the East-West Institute “Seizing the Moment” conference at the UN, with cosponsorship from Campaign coalition partners BASIC and Global Security Institute.

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