This is the main tenor of an article dealing with the issue of international nuclear proliferation carried by No. 6 issue of the Chinese magazine "World Affairs."

The article titled "The nuclear weapons of the DPRK at a turning point. The issue of vertical and transverse nuclear non-proliferation hard to solve" said:

The nuclear issue of the DPRK, in essence, reflects a difficult issue in normalizing the relations between the DPRK and the U.S.

In the gambling of the DPRK and the U.S. over the nuclear issue, the DPRK has guaranteed its existence with nuclear weapons and pursued development, proceeding from its security need and, at the same time, handled it in a tactical manner, consistently maintaining a clear thread of connection.

The guarantee of the existence was the main motive of the DPRK in seeking access to nuclear weapons. The DPRK and the U.S. are the sworn enemies each other and the former is exposed to constant threat from the latter. The U.S. threatened more than once to use nukes against the DPRK.

The U.S. listed the DPRK as part of an "axis of evil" at the end of the Cold War and had already worked out an operational plan against the DPRK. The joint military exercises of the U.S. and south Korea targeted against the DPRK have never ceased. Their number has noticeably increased in recent years.

Such poor security environment required the DPRK to guarantee its existence as a sovereign state with nuclear weapons.

The world nuclear non-proliferation regime has faced an increasing blatant challenge since the demise of the Cold War.

The world nuclear proliferation has witnessed the steady emergence of two tendencies: obvious transverse and vertical proliferation.

As a matter of fact, the number of new nuclear weapons states or countries and anti-government entities which acquired nuclear capability is on the steady increase besides the five nuclear weapons states allowed to possess nukes under the NPT. And the nuclear race is ceaselessly escalating among the universally recognized nuclear weapons states.

Typical of the vertical nuclear proliferation is the nuclear race escalating between the U.S. and Russia, the two nuclear superpowers, in a sustainable manner.

The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty concluded between them which can serve as the only means for making substantial progress in the building of a world without nukes is no more than a drop in the ocean.

They still have an absolute majority of nuclear weapons while steadily increasing the investment in improving them. Nuclear weapons are regarded as something indispensable in the national security strategy and the said nuclear powers remain basically unchanged in their confrontational nuclear posture based on the Cold War.

It is against this backdrop that it is not hard to understand that the DPRK is by no means the country to which the above-said non-proliferation regime should pay attention. The proliferation getting evermore distinct in Israel, Iran, India, Pakistan, south Korea, Japan and other countries proves that nuclear proliferation is not confined to the existing nuclear issue and complicated political and security interests are lurking behind it.

A proof of this is that the lune field of world transverse nuclear proliferation clashes with the instable lune zone of world security.

The international community, nuclear powers, in particular, should make substantial efforts to successfully handle the issue of vertical nuclear proliferation and, at the same time, properly solve the issue of transverse nuclear proliferation.

This is the key to preserving the world nuclear non-proliferation regime and attaining the noble goal to build a world without nukes.