Discussions underway on preventing spread of weapons of mass destruction

Poland and 10 other countries are discussing ways of stopping the worldwide spread of weapons of mass destruction. The first conference on this issue took place on June 12, to be followed by one at the beginning of July. According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, this is the first international initiative for a dozen years in which Poland has participated from the start. All the meetings have been held in secret and this has resulted in many misunderstandings, such as rumors that the Australian government was responsible for starting the initiative, which was itself deemed to be aimed at limiting the smuggling of drugs and weapons by North Korea. According to Krzysztof Paturej from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the initiative was definitely American and "It was also a general discussion, not only about Korea." He added that drugs were not an agenda topic. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A7) M.M.