Ban Ki-moon asks militaries to dump nukes

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon issued a strong new call for global nuclear disarmament on Friday in California, criticizing the size of modern military budgets and the arms industries they support.

The secretary general has been an early-and-often advocate for nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, predating his term in office. But in a sweeping review, Ban described his efforts and the disarmament movement at large in bleak terms.

“As I look at the disarmament landscape, my feelings are mixed,” Ban said, at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. “Nuclear disarmament progress is off track.”

Without citing Iran or other countries, Ban said world leaders have become too focused on the spread of nuclear weapons instead of their dismantling.

“Our aim must be more than keeping the deadliest of weapons from ‘falling into the wrong hands.’ There are no right hands for wrong weapons.”

Ban also pressed military strategists to reconsider the purpose of keeping their stockpiles.

In the US, arms control watchers hope the Obama administration, with support from Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense, will enter into new talks with Russia on reductions. Conservatives in Congress have expressed their fear that Hagel would back so-called unilateral nuclear reductions -meaning the U.S. would cut its stocks without a commitment from Russia to do the same.