World leaders use Seoul nuclear summit to warn North Korea

In the ongoing nuclear summit in Seoul (South Korea), the plan to launch a rock-powered satellite by North Korea has reportedly dominated all other discussions, despite not being on the agenda list. Leaders from 50 different nations, including the United States, Russia and such others have assembled together to discuss how to make the world safe from nuclear terrorism. It is also being said that the world leaders are choosing the summit platform to bore on the North Korean leadership to abandon its rocket launching plan next month (mid-April) or face consequence.

The North Korean leadership has said that they intend to launch a weather satellite as part of their ‘peaceful space program’. However, the nations opposing North Korea hold a different opinion. They believe that North Korea is going for a test missile launch.

In his opening speech in the nuclear summit, the Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihiko Noda, has urged North Korea to exercise self-restraint. Pointing out further, he stated that North Korea’s nuclear aspirations would undermine the efforts of international community to ensure a safer world through nuclear disarmament.

On Monday, the United States President, Barak Obama, has clearly stated that Pyongyang’s pursuit for nuclear power would not ensure the security that it seeks. Rather, it would endanger North Korea and make it totally isolated from the rest of the world. In fact, Obama minced no words saying that if North Korea chooses to go with its plan, any potential threat would be met jointly by the United States and China. Chinese leadership has expressed “serious concerns” about the latest development.

Earlier in the day, President Obama along with his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak have cautioned Pyongyang that it would face further economic sanctions if it does not abandon its launch plans. South Korea has also warned that it would closely track its (missile’s) trajectory and would not hesitate to shoot it down if found within the South Korean territory.

Around two months ago, North Korea have requested food assistance from the United States in exchange for suspending its nuclear program. But it seems to have retreated its stand. Currently, North Korea is in acute food shortage.

Tests find radioactive Cesium in rice farms in Japan

Almost a year has passed since a massive earthquake and Tsunami has ripped through Japan, resulting in the Fukusima Daichi nuclear plant’s triple meltdown. Since then it has been an uphill struggle for Japan to make its food supply free of radioactive contamination. It has been reported that more than a dozen rice farmers in Onami, near the infamous nuclear plant, had their crop tested only to find high level of radioactive cesium in their produce. This has created fresh panic as Onami’s rice was earlier declared safe for consumption by inspectors of Japanese government.

The latest findings of radioactive contamination in rice and that of beef, in a similar incident in July, has prompted the Japanese government to act with alacrity. To win back the confidence of its civil society, the Japanese government has assured a fresh inspection of all 25,000 rice farms in the neighboring Fukusima Daichi nuclear plant. Currently, Japan is trying to fill out the gaps in the prevailing food-screening measures and find out a more effective way of checking food contamination through radioactive substances.