Boris Johnson warns of the threat of imminent nuclear war

Boris Johnson said today warned the ‘trembling human race’ feared imminent nuclear war as he called on North Korea and Iran to back off weapons programmes. 

The Foreign Secretary used a major foreign policy speech to say the global community should not need a nuclear weapon to be used in anger before re-learning the lessons of World War Two.

He hit out at the risks of a ‘Reservoir Dogs’ style stand off with nuclear armed powers facing off despite the mutually assured destruction of firing first.  

Addressing the Chatham House think tank, Mr Johnson said the nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed in the aftermath of the US bombing Japan had been an act of almost ‘evolutionary’ wisdom by governments around the world.

Despite the dire warning of global catastrophe, Mr Johnson said US President Donald Trump was right to prepare for a nuclear stand off with North Korea.  

Boris Johnson (pictured today at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel) said today warned the ‘trembling human race’ feared imminent nuclear war

In a speech to Chatham House (pictured), the Foreign Secretary used a major foreign policy speech to say the global community should not need a nuclear weapon to be used in anger before re-learning the lessons of World War Two.

In a speech to Chatham House (pictured), the Foreign Secretary used a major foreign policy speech to say the global community should not need a nuclear weapon to be used in anger before re-learning the lessons of World War Two.

Mr Johnson hit out at the risks of a 'Reservoir Dogs' style stand off with nuclear armed powers facing off despite the mutually assured destruction of firing first at a major speech to the Chatham House London Conference at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel (pictured) 

Mr Johnson hit out at the risks of a ‘Reservoir Dogs’ style stand off with nuclear armed powers facing off despite the mutually assured destruction of firing first at a major speech to the Chatham House London Conference at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel (pictured) 

Mr Johnson said no one wants a military response to the crisis and suggested that the Iran process represented the kind of ‘diplomatic imagination’ that could provide a solution.

Comparing the situation to the Cold War, the Foreign Secretary said: ‘The public can be forgiven for genuinely starting to wonder whether the nuclear sword of Damocles is once again held over the head of a trembling human race.’ 

The Foreign Secretary praised US secretary of state Rex Tillerson for opening the door to dialogue with Kim Jong-un, even though Mr Trump has said negotiating is a ‘waste of time’. 

His intervention comes amid concern at what has been seen as inflammatory rhetoric from Mr Trump and Kim, whom the president called ‘Rocket Man’ after a series of missile tests.

Giving a speech at Chatham House in London, Mr Johnson called for ‘toughness but engagement’ with Pyongyang to de-escalate tensions.

He said: ‘It is right that Rex Tillerson has specifically opened the door to dialogue. He has tried to give some sensible reassurances to the regime, to enable them to take up this offer.

‘This is the moment for North Korea’s regime to change course.

Boris Johnson today said that Donald Trump is right to prepare for war with North Korea

Boris Johnson today said that Donald Trump is right to prepare for war with North Korea

‘And if they do the world can show it is once again capable of the diplomatic imagination that produced the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and that after 12 years of continuous effort produced the nuclear deal with Iran.’

But he also stressed the need to keep military options on the table, saying: ‘Kim and the world need to understand that when the president of the United States contemplates a regime led by a man who not only threatens to reduce New York to ‘ashes’, but who stands on the verge of acquiring the power to make good on his threat, I am afraid that the US president – whoever he or she might be – will have an absolute duty to prepare any option to keep safe not only the American people but all those who have sheltered under the American nuclear umbrella.’

He also warned of the dire consequences of failing to reach a diplomatic solution to the nuclear threat.

‘A new generation has grown up with no memory of the threat of a nuclear winter, and little education in the appalling logic of mutually assured destruction,’ Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson's intervention comes amid concern at what has been seen as inflammatory rhetoric from Mr Trump and Kim Jong Un (pictured)

Mr Johnson’s intervention comes amid concern at what has been seen as inflammatory rhetoric from Mr Trump and Kim Jong Un (pictured)

‘The memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is now literally fading from living memory. The NPT is one of the great diplomatic achievements of the last century.

‘It has stood the test of time [and] shows an unexpected wisdom on the part of humanity, and almost evolutionary instinct for the survival of the species. It is the job of our generation to preserve that agreement, and British diplomacy will be at the forefront of the endeavour.’

He urged Trump to show the ‘far-sightedness’ not to quit the Iran nuclear deal.

Mr Trump decertified the 2015 pact with Iran, complaining his predecessor Barack Obama had been taken advantage of in negotiations, and last week repeated his threat to pull out of the landmark deal entirely.

Mr Johnson will urge Mr Trump to invoke the spirit of the 1970 NPT, which avoided a ‘Gadarene rush to destruction’ by turning the world into a ‘great arena of Mexican stand-offs’.

He will point out the success of the NPT rests on US protection of other nations, which he described as one of the ‘greatest contributions’ from America to the ‘unprecedented epoch of peace and prosperity that we have all been living through’.

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