Gorbachev: Nukes Could Keep Spreading

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Ex-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said Sunday the five original nuclear powers haven't done enough to eliminate nuclear weapons and prevent other nations from acquiring them.

Consequently, India, Pakistan, Israel and most recently North Korea have joined the club, Gorbachev said at the screening of a CNN television series on the Cold War at the Museum of Television & Radio.

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If the five undermine the treaty, he said, more than 30 countries capable of producing the weapons will say that if the five ``are preserving and modernizing their nuclear weapons, why should we be hostages to this situation?'''

``This is a very serious situation,'' he said.

When asked whether North Korea was trying to scare the world or the other way around, the 75-year-old former Kremlin leader replied, ``I think both sides are trying to scare the other side.''

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6149958,00.html