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North Korea tested two long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2017-one reportedly capable of reaching the United States mainland.
Since 2006, North Korea has openly tested nuclear weapons, drawing sanctions from various nations and international bodies. North Korea initially signed the NPT treaty, but announced its withdrawal from the agreement in 2003. South Sudan is not known or believed to possess nuclear weapons. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though has never officially confirmed or denied the existence of a nuclear weapons program. Pakistan has a known nuclear weapons program. Other non-signatories to the NTP include: Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan. The United States and Soviet Union took the lead in negotiating an international agreement to halt the further spread of nuclear weapons in 1968. It was one of the largest political protests in United States history. In 1982, a million people marched in New York City protesting nuclear weapons and urging an end to the Cold War nuclear arms race. The antinuclear movement captured national attention again in the 1970s and 1980s with high profile protests against nuclear reactors after the Three Mile Island accident-a nuclear meltdown at a Pennsylvania power plant in 1979. During Women Strike for Peace demonstrations on Novemco-organized by activist Bella Abzug, roughly 50,000 women marched in 60 cities in the United States to demonstrate against nuclear weapons. The antinuclear movement emerged as a social movement in 1961 at the height of the Cold War. Many Americans became concerned about the health and environmental effects of nuclear fallout-the radiation left in the environment after a nuclear blast-in the wake of World War II and after extensive nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific during the 1940s and 1950s. The Cold Warĭisaster was avoided when the United States agreed to an offer made by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the United States promising not to invade Cuba. American planes then turned toward their secondary target, Nagasaki.Ĭiting the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb,” Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s surrender on August 15-a day that became known as ‘ V-J Day’-ending World War II. American bombers initially had targeted the city of Kokura, where Japan had one of its largest munitions plants, but smoke from firebombing raids obscured the sky over Kokura. Nagasaki had not been the primary target for the second bomb. The “Fat Man” killed an estimated 40,000 people on impact. When the Japanese did not immediately surrender, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb three days later on the city of Nagasaki.
Tens of thousands more would later die from radiation exposure. The “Little Boy” exploded with about 13 kilotons of force, leveling five square miles of the city and killing 80,000 people instantly. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb from a B-29 bomber plane called the Enola Gay over the city of Hiroshima, Japan.