UNITED NATIONS (AP) — An impatient U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is pushing to set a deadline for activating the treaty banning all nuclear tests, stepping up pressure in a campaign to win over holdouts, including the U.S. Senate.
"The bottom line is this: It has been 15 years since the treaty was opened for signature. How long must we wait?" Ban asked delegates at the opening of a pivotal, monthlong conference on nuclear nonproliferation.
The U.S. Senate in 1999 rejected the "CTBT," the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty, but President Barack Obama plans to resubmit the pact for ratification. Some Republicans are again mustering opposition, but Democrats are hopeful of approval next year.
Ban also said it's time to consider creative ways to get around what may prove to be final die-hard obstacles to the treaty — possibly a resistant North Korea, or India and Pakistan.
Negotiated in the 1990s, the treaty specified 44 nuclear-capable states — from Algeria to Vietnam — that must give full approval before it can take effect.
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