Nuclear Weapons Proliferation: South Africa Background: South Africa is the only country in Africa to successfully develop nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantle them. To initiate Africa's affiliation with nuclear weapons, South Africa signed a fifty-year nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States in 1957. A nuclear weapons program was then initiated in 1970 with scientists tasked with building various nuclear weapons. In 1990, South Africa's president, FW de Klerk, ended the program with the aim of joining the NPT as a state without nuclear weapons capabilities. In 1991 they then joined the NPT and reached a safeguards agreement with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). This was a peace-promoting organisation, which also carried out safeguard inspections. South Africa then submitted its declaration on nuclear facilities and inventories, and the IAEA then had to verify the completeness of our inventory. At the time, South Africa controlled 10% of the country's electricity. Between 1979 and 1989, South Africa built and dismantled numerous nuclear weapons. This made it very complicated for the IAEA to verify them for the first time. In 1993 President FW de Klerk announced the dismantling of six nuclear weapons and an unfinished seventh. In 1995, the IAEA stated that it was satisfied with South Africa's entire materials and weapons program. Even though the weapons program had been stopped and dismantled, it still needed to be accounted for. In 1996, South Africa signed the African Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty. It was stated that no nuclear activity would occur in this area. In 2002, South Africa signed the Additional Protocol relating to… half of the document… All in all, nuclear weapons are capable of causing mass destruction among large nations. With this in mind, the Republic of South Africa believes in the establishment of nuclear-free zones in Korea. If any nation in the North Korea area had nuclear weapons, typical conflicts already underway could quickly escalate into nuclear conflicts that could result in surprisingly high casualties. And to keep this problem under control and safeguard life on earth we must help maintain some degree of peace in the area, and the creation of nuclear weapons-free zones seems to be a great way to do this. Several nations have already pushed for the security of many other nations, even those located outside the zone would benefit. We can also implement the NPT so that many nations understand how important it is to maintain nuclear weapons.