Most Indians find the Americans over-bearing and unjust. They find the Americans fiercely self-obsessed and highly individualistic. Most importantly they find the American policy towards India a consequence to or an offshoot of American policy to “something else” and not a policy that is based on an independent recognition of India as morale power. They think that America is far too in love with Pakistan and unjustly gives them a long rope. Naturally, at the backdrop of this it is becoming difficult for many to digest the latest Indo American deal on nuclear power.

North Korea announced in February 2005 that it has nuclear weapons, and as per reports Pyongyang has already amassed enough fissile material to make six to eight bombs. Now with satellite reports giving indications few analysts feel that North Korean preparation is on to test the device in immediate future.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), known to the World as North Korea, has indicated that it has increased its ‘existing’ nuclear arsenal to counter a possible preemptive invasion by the United States. Earlier, the self-proclaimed nuclear power has accused the United States of seeking to topple the government at helm. It also feared that the joint US-South Korean military exercises could pose as a preparatory war against the country.

The Convention on the prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling of bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons and their destruction, better known as the BTWC or BWC has attained thirty years of existence on March 26, 2005. The BTWC, a multilateral treaty, was negotiated from 1969-1971. It was opened for signature at London, Moscow and Washington DC on April 10, 1972. It entered into force on March 26, 1975 with 43 member countries, after ratification by the three Depository State—the USA, the Soviet Union (erstwhile) and the United Kingdom.

In recent times North Korea’s and Iran’s nuclear adventurism has become so significant that an important news was found missing from the current global strategic discourse on weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The news was concerning the acceptance by North Korea of the presence of bio-weapons in their country. The North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju has declared to Japanese sources that: “Other than nuclear, we also have many other things. We also have bio-weapons.”

Intelligence is the first line of defence in any war; unfortunately for the Americans, this most important aspect of war was the weakest link during recent Iraq confrontation. Their failure to find Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in Iraq made them realise the need of reassessment of overall intelligence gathering procedures. The recent re-evaluation by adopting more stringent standards towards analysing their earlier estimates about Cuba’s bio-weapons programme has made them conclude that Cuba has no active bio-weapons programme.

The proliferation of nuclear weapons has emerged as an issue demanding greater attention from international community that engaged in devising methods to fight the scourge of international terrorism. Recent disclosure by Iran that it was about to start processing 37 tonnes of raw uranium into uranium hexafluoride gas has alarmed the US and its allies in the Middle East and Europe for obvious reason.