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North Korea claims to have tested a massive hydrogen bomb capable of being fitted on to a long-range missile

UNI Global Union roundly condemns North Korea for continuing with its irresponsible nuclear missile tests. North Korea claims it detonated a hydrogen bomb over the weekend which could be fitted to a long-range missile.

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings said, “UNI wishes to add its voice of condemnation to those of  South Korea and Japan, as well as other UN nations, calling for North Korea to halt missile tests which have the potential to provoke war.

“We join with the ITUC in urging dialogue to resolve issues on the Korean Peninsula and an end to actions which could see the region deteriorate into chaos.”

The size of the hydrogen bomb, believed to have been tested over the weekend by North Korea, is thought to be three times as powerful as the bombs that destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. UNI has an understanding of the horrors of these events, having brought more than 2000 unionists to Nagasaki in 2010 for our World Congress, allowing them to gain an insight into the human misery of nuclear war.  

UNI also receives an annual visit from the Nagasaki Peace Messengers. This group of high school students supported by relatives of the victims of the atomic bombings bring their message of peace to the United Nations in Geneva and present a petition of around 2 million signatories calling for a world free from nuclear weapons. Their recent visit was particularly poignant at a time when the United Nations adopted a  Treaty Against Nuclear Weapons but when tensions have been escalating globally  because of North Korea’s nuclear tests and President Trump’s verbally aggressive response.

Pyongyang has persistently defied United Nation’s sanctions and international pressure by developing nuclear weapons and testing missiles, and the provocations have intensified. In recent weeks North Korea has conducted intercontinental ballistic missile tests, sending a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. North Korea has also threatened to fire missiles at the US Pacific territory of Guam.

The United Nations Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting to discuss its response. South Korea and Japan's leaders have agreed to push for a stronger UN resolution on North Korea, according to South Korean presidential sources.

UNI Global Union is dedicated to working towards a peaceful world and with that goal in mind, ‘Peace’ will feature strongly on the agenda of our next World Congress in Liverpool in June 2018.  UNI is a proud member of ICAN, the International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, and the IPB, the International Peace Bureau.

UNI GS Philip Jennings is currently in Japan to meet with affiliates; the Korean Peninsula question will be on the agenda.