Japan steered off the agenda at a nuclear security summit on Tuesday to hit out at North Korea's plans for a rocket launch next month, as US President Barack Obama cautioned against complacency in dealing with the threat of nuclear terrorism. The summit was briefly interrupted by a dispute between Argentina and Britain, which went to war in 1982 over the Falkland Islands, over suggestions Britain had sent a submarine capable of carrying nuclear weapons to the South Atlantic.
A communique issued at the end of the two-day meeting of more than 50 world leaders in Seoul was light on specifics on how to reduce the risk of atomic materials falling into bad hands, loosely calling for all vulnerable material to be secured in four years. The world's biggest nuclear concerns, those surrounding the weapons programmes of North Korea and Iran, were not on the agenda at the summit, and neither country was invited. The secretive North has been widely criticised on the sidelines of the meeting, including by main ally China, but host South Korea has explicitly stated the North's weapons of mass destruction programmes were off the table during the summit itself.
The forum is meant to deal only with safeguarding nuclear material and facilities and preventing trafficking. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ignored protocol and urged the international community to strongly demand North Korea exercise self-restraint over next month's planned rocket launch. "The planned missile launch North Korea recently announced would go against the international community's nuclear non-proliferation effort and violate UN Security Council resolutions," Noda said in an opening speech.
No other major leaders mentioned North Korea's nuclear ambitions or the ballistic missile launch which Pyongyang says will carry a weather satellite into orbit. The West says the launch is a disguised test of a long-range missile designed to reach the American mainland.
North Korea said last week it would consider it a "provocation" if its "nuclear issue is placed on the agenda at the Seoul summit" and if any statement was issued against the North for pursuing such a programme. On Tuesday, it said there was no reason to fire a missile after February's agreement to suspend nuclear and missile tests in return for food aid with the United States. Obama has said the destitute North could be hit with tighter sanctions if it goes ahead with the rocket launch, but experts doubt China will back another UN Security Council resolution against it.
A row erupted during the main session of the summit when British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg hit back at accusations levelled by Argentinian Foreign Minister Hector Timermanan that an "extra-regional power" had sent a submarine capable of carrying nuclear weapons to the South Atlantic. In front of the world's leaders, Clegg fired back his own missive, calling the remarks "unfounded, baseless insinuations".
Tension between Britain and Argentina is rising as the 30th anniversary approaches of Argentina's invasion of the Falklands that was repulsed by a British task force after a 10-week conflict that killed 650 Argentine and 255 British troops. Obama told leaders the world was safer because of the steps taken to improve nuclear security, but warned that the threat of the wrong people getting hold of the materials to make a crude atomic bomb was real.
"Nuclear terrorism is one of the most urgent and serious threats to global security," he said. The communique issued at the end of the summit reaffirmed states' commitment to minimising stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, safeguarding nuclear facilities, and preventing illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive material.
The long and vaguely worded document, however, offered nothing in the shape of measurable targets and did not single out any state for criticism. Critics say the summit is no more than a talking-shop, and warn that even though its mandate was extended to include safety after the Fukushima crisis in Japan last year, the next summit in the Netherlands could be the last.