Disarmament Diplomacy

Issue No. 27, June 1998

Nuclear Tests Move 'Doomsday Clock' Forward

On 11 June, the 'Doomsday Clock' - set up by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in June 1947 to symbolically represent humanity's proximity to nuclear destruction - was moved forward by five minutes, from 11.46 to 11.51, to reflect the gravity of the crisis posed to the global non-proliferation regime by the May 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan. The change - the 16th since the Clock's introduction - takes the countdown to destruction under the 10-minute mark for the first time since 1988. White House spokesperson Mike McCurry congratulated the Bulletin for "drawing, in a very vivid way, public attention to a matter our Government is very concerned with."

Reports: Nuclear testing moves Doomsday Clock, United Press International, 11 June; White House welcomes warning on bomb, United Press International, 11 June.

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