Seoul and Little Else

The nuclear security summit in Seoul closed on Tuesday with little more than a statement of intent. In fact, U.S. president Barack Obama, surprised by an open microphone while parleying with acting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, warned that he needs leeway until his hypothetical re-election next November, to agree with Russia on a reduction of the European missile shield that would satisfy Moscow. This is the main, though poor, conclusion of the summit.

Regarding affecting global security by ensuring nuclear arms will not fall into terrorists’ hands, it also didn’t do much more than urge states to implement measures adopted at the Washington summit of 2010, but without recommending that they should be binding and without offering any funds to carry them out. For them, these are not times of crisis. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said that currently there is enough inadequately secured enriched uranium and plutonium to make 100,000 atomic bombs, some of which could fall into the hands of terrorist groups. But that didn’t seem to alarm the attendees, and it will have to be left up to the 2014 summit in Holland to go forward in this regard, both in the storage of this material and its trade and transport.

There was also no progress in what response the international community should be giving to the threats posed by nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. Being the neighbor of Seoul, Pyongyang was the most cited. Its insistence on launching a satellite in mid-April with a long-range missile that experts say can actually hide a nuclear test was ever present at the summit, to the point that China, North Korea’s ally, was forced to put pressure on the North. But that seems unlikely to be effective.

The shadow of the Iranian threat has also landed on the summit, although much more discreetly. Obama warned his partners in Seoul, especially Chinese and Russian leaders, that the diplomatic path to have Tehran to halt its non-peaceful nuclear effort is practically exhausted, and that the international community should take action if the regime of the Ayatollahs continues to ignore the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Israel presses the international community to take military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, while its allies in Washington, London and Paris try to buy time to avoid it. In an election year, it is difficult for Obama to launch such an adventure.

Beyond some agreements between countries, such as replacing the use of highly enriched uranium for medical purposes by depleted uranium — which is denser but less radioactive, thus improving the safety of facilities and personnel — the Seoul summit achieved minimal results. Little progress has been made in safety or concerning the future of nuclear energy. Few lessons have been learned from the fiasco of Fukushima. Maybe a year is a short period of time and the summit has tiptoed over one of the problems that most affect the future of peaceful uses of nuclear power.