At a Senate confirmation hearing, Vice Adm. Richard Correll, the nominee to lead U.S. Strategic Command, urged restraint in interpreting Trump’s words. “Neither China nor Russia has conducted a nuclear explosive test,” Correll said. “I wouldn’t presume the president’s words meant nuclear testing.”
However, the White House, when pressed by ABC News, would only say it was “potentially” the case that Trump referred to testing that fits within “current norms.”
A 30-Year Freeze on Explosive Nuclear Testing
The United States last conducted a nuclear test explosion in 1992, before President George H.W. Bush signed a moratorium banning further detonations. Four years later, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was introduced to permanently outlaw all nuclear explosions.
Although both the U.S. and Russia signed the CTBT, neither has ratified it, preventing the treaty from taking full effect. Nonetheless, a de facto global moratorium has persisted — one broken only by North Korea.
