US examining Marshall Islands' nuclear lawsuits, defends record
WASHINGTON - The United States said on Friday it was examining lawsuits filed by the Marshall Islands against it and eight other nuclear-armed countries that accuse them of failing in their obligation to negotiate nuclear disarmament.
The Marshall Islands filed the lawsuits on Thursday in the United States and The Hague. The tiny republic in the Pacific Ocean was used for US nuclear tests in the 1950s.
The US State Department, however, defended the US record on disarmament and said its stockpile of nuclear arms had been cut by 80 percent since the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the NPT, took effect in 1970. (Reuters)
