Mr. Van Loan, the situation is like this: the 27,000 nuclear weapons in the world constitute a volcano. These other states like North Korea and Iran are flashpoints off that volcano. The volcano could erupt at any time, and that's what we're being warned about.
Naturally we want to stop any country whatsoever from obtaining nuclear weapons--period--but it is unrealistic to think that other states in the world, as we proceed through the 21st century, will not wish to acquire nuclear weapons as instruments as power if the nuclear-weapons states themselves do not follow their legal obligations in the non-proliferation treaty. That's what this issue is really all about.
We must enforce the legal base of the non-proliferation treaty in insisting--which the International Court of Justice has done--that the nuclear-weapons states enter into comprehensive negotiations leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons. Nobody's saying this can be done overnight--it's technically impossible--but not to start down that road and show the good faith--which is the word used at article VI--is to signal to the world that nuclear weapons are indeed going to be important for political power.