Letter: Nuclear war

GEOFFREY LEAN ably reported how Jimmy Carter has tried to dissuade North Korea from joining the prestigious Nuclear Weapon Club. A wise and important objective, and one which the United Nations and the United States is backing with the threat of sanctions ('The frontier with Armageddon', 19 June).

But would it not be equally wise for the UN to query the nuclear pursuits of, say France, Trident submarines, Israel, South Africa, and others. It must be strange to North Koreans to note that on these proliferations there is silence.

When Mordechai Vanunu told the truth about Israel's long-concealed nuclear production plant in the Negev desert he was promptly drugged, manacled, and given a life sentence of solitary confinement - with not a word of protest from Britain or Italy, where the Mossad agents conducted this nauseous exercise.

Is this a slight case of double standards?

P E Perry

London E17