While defending the United States' nuclear weapons reduction efforts, U.S. officials at the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference last week in Vienna also took to the offensive with comments aimed at North Korea and Iran, saying a new approach is needed to prevent more countries around the world from acquiring nuclear weapons. "The jury is still out on whether the NPT regime will be able to meet today's challenges," said Christopher Ford, the United States' special representative for nuclear nonproliferation. Ford said the members that signed the original NPT treaty needed to come together and develop quick responses to violations and stiffer penalties. "It is clear that we need to develop more effective approaches so that the delay between detection and reaction is minimized, the cost to the violator is increased, and the anticipated benefits of noncompliance to the violator are reduced," he said.
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