International community to call on North Korea to sign nuke test ban treaty

The international community is expected to call on North Korea to sign a nuclear test ban treaty this week as the communist country has shown no signs of giving up its weapons of mass destruction program, a news report showed Wednesday. Foreign ministers from signatory states of the Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), who are scheduled to meet on Friday at the United Nations headquarters in New York, will adopt a resolution urging Pyongyang to join the global non-proliferation effort, Radio Free Asia (RFA) said. The move comes as the North officially announced in April that it will restart its five megawatt graphite moderated reactor in Yongbyon that had been shut down following the six-party talks held in 2007. CTBTO's spokesman told the Washington-based radio station that foreign ministers will also hold talks to expand cooperation to better monitor nuclear tests around the world. The RFA said that besides North Korea, ministers will call on other countries that have not signed the nuclear test ban pact to reconsider their positions. The CTBTO was established in 1996 to contribute to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through strengthened observation. It currently has 183 signatory states, but the United States, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, Iran, Egypt and North Korea have opted not to sign. The United Nations' organization currently operates 200 detection stations around the world and is able to monitor all nuclear tests that take place. It has maintained 24-hour surveillance on the North, which has carried out three underground nuclear tests since 2006, with the latest taking place in February. China has recently joined the effort to monitor the North, the organization said.