The risk of atomic warfare may grow in coming decades as the nuclear club expands and the world's top military powers develop new missiles and warheads with smaller yields, a Swedish research institute said.
In its annual report, released on Monday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) for the first time counted North Korea among the world's nuclear forces, because of its test explosion in October last year.
Although it remains unclear whether the communist country has "weaponized its nuclear capability," SIPRI estimated that North Korea could produce about six nuclear warheads, based on its stockpiles of plutonium.
Including North Korea, SIPRI estimated the world's nine nuclear nations held more than 11,000 operational warheads at the start of this year, with Russia and the US accounting for more than 90 percent.
Iran could also join the nuclear weapons club if it decides to develop its contentious uranium enrichment program for military use, said Ian Anthony, a nuclear expert at SIPRI.
"Iran could appear on this list, but at the earliest five years from now," Anthony said.
Although the US and Russia are reducing their nuclear stockpiles as part of bilateral treaties, they and others are modernizing their arsenals with new weapons with smaller yields, Anthony said.
"The concern is that countries are starting to see these weapons as useable whereas during the Cold War they were seen as a deterrent," SIPRI researcher Ian Anthony told reporters.
The US remained the world's biggest military spender, devoting almost US$529 billion to arms last year, while China overtook Japan as Asia's top arms spender, the report said.
US military spending grew from US$505 billion in 2005 mainly because of the "costly military operations" in Iraq and Afghanistan, SIPRI said.
The report said the US government provided a total of US$432 billion in supplemental appropriations for the war on terrorism between September 2001 and June last year.
"This massive increase in US military spending has been one of the factors contributing to the deterioration of the US economy since 2001," SIPRI said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS