The 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons started Monday at the United Nations' headquarters in New York. While the treaty has served as a foundation for efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and achieve nuclear disarmament, the NPT regime has been shaken in recent years. Participants in the four-week conference, especially the nuclear-weapons powers, should strive to create a road map that will lead to the abolition of nuclear arms.
While six major powers and Iran reached a framework agreement in early April to dramatically reduce Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of some economic sanctions against the country, the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program collapsed in 2008.
The cases of Iran and North Korea highlight loopholes in the NPT, which does not ban the enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. How to prevent the spread of these technologies — which can be used to make nuclear weapons — is a serious international issue. Japan, which possesses 47 tons of plutonium that was produced through the reprocessing of its spent nuclear fuel, should play a leading role in resolving the problem.