A DPRK delegate declared this stand at the plenary session of the Geneva Disarmament Conference on Feb. 24.

Mankind is now faced with an urgent task to prevent the nuclear arms race, step up the nuclear disarmament and realize the denuclearization of the world, he said, adding:

It is necessary for the international community to take measures to finally remove all the factors that may cause nuclear disasters.

The nuclear disarmament is a pressing issue directly related to the existence of humankind rather than an issue related to global peace and security.

The DPRK has consistently called for overall and complete removal of nuclear weapons from the earth.

It is urgent for the nuclear states to set it a goal to dismantle all nuclear weapons and, for the present, stop the improvement and development of nukes and work out a comprehensive plan for reducing nukes and means of their delivery.

The nuclear states committed themselves to dismantlement of their nukes for the first time with the 2000 NPT Review Conference as a momentum. However, any substantial step has not yet been taken and the present institutional device is not enough to ensure the genuine nuclear disarmament.

Hence, it is urgently needed to conduct bilateral and multilateral negotiations for nuclear disarmament simultaneously.

The nuclear states should unconditionally pledge themselves not to be the first in using nukes and promptly come out to the negotiations for drafting an international convention in this regard.