Is global nuclear imbalance the reason why Kim Jong-un has gone rogue?

North Korea's `Supreme Leader' has kept the world on tenterhooks with a series of daring -and risky -nuclear tests, including one that killed 200 citizens this September. What Kim Jong-un is doing is foolhardy and being termed `crazy'. But India too had faced a global backlash when it conducted its nuclear test in 1998. Does the western world think it has the right to monopolise and control access to nuclear power and supplies? The current status of the nuclear balance suggests so.

Which country has conducted highest number of nuclear tests?
The west today is championing the banning of nuclear tests, but they have conducted the maximum number of nuclear tests. of nuclear tests to date involved US, Russia, France, and the UK.

Have nuclear tests rapidly declined after the cold war?
The highest number of nuclear tests were carried out between 1961 and 1970 -a period described by some experts as the height of the cold war as it was characterised by events like the Cuban missile crisis that brought US and USSR to the brink of a nuclear war. Since then there has been a steady decline and a drastic drop after the end of the cold war in the early 1990s.

Has any nuclear state given away its weapons?
Yes, after signing the Budapest Memorandum (with US, UK and Russia) former Soviet states of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan gave away their nuclear weapons to Russia. In return they were guaranteed perpetual sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia, however, annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014 and it remains a matter of debate whether this might have happened had Ukraine retained these weapons.





Who has how many nuclear weapons?
Although North Korea is the only country that has conducted nuclear tests in this millennium, Russia and the US together have over 92% of the world's total nuclear inventory. Because of the discriminatory nature of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which is aimed at banning nuclear tests, India is among the major critiques of the pact which, it is argued, is a developed world tool for maintaining its nuclear monopoly. Incidentally, India hasn't signed either CTBT or the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Who controls world nuclear fuel?
Unlike other minerals, uranium, the main fuel of a nuclear reactor, is not freely traded. Any country wanting to make nuclear weapons or seeking to harness nuclear energy for peaceful purposes cannot buy it on the open market. The technology to build nuclear reactors is closely guarded by a voluntary association of 46 countries called the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which follows guidelines for supplying uranium as well as the technology to make nuclear reactors. The policies of the group are determined by the industrialised countries and the developing world criticises it for not letting them access an energy source that can help fulfil their growing energy demand.