Nobel Peace Prize winner says goal is to make nukes unacceptable

Beatrice Fihn, the head of ICAN that won Nobel Peace Prize 2017, says that for a long time nuclear weapons have been seen as “an issue of the past” that isn’t relevant.

The head of the anti-nuclear campaign that won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize says its goal is to make nuclear weapons unacceptable in the minds of people in every country — which will eventually force all nuclear-armed nations to listen to their people and give up their arsenals.

Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), speaks during a press conference, on October 9 at United Nations headquarters. ICAN, a coalition of non-government organizations in one hundred countries advocating a nuclear weapon ban treaty, is the 2017 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo)

Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, told a news conference Monday that for a long time nuclear weapons have been seen as “an issue of the past” that isn’t relevant.

But she said threats by President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un to use nuclear weapons “makes this an urgent issue again.”

“And I think that this Nobel Peace Prize can really bring about a much bigger movement against nuclear weapons,” Fihn said.