Agreement of 13 February 2007
Initial Actions for the Implementation of the Joint Statement

• Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Korea Times, Seoul
• Washington Post

• Engaging the DPRK Enrichment and Small LWR Program: What Would It Take?
  By David von Hippel and Peter Hayes December 23, 2010 Peter Hayes, Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, and David von Hippel, Nautilus Institute Senior Associate, write, “it may be possible to slow and even reverse the DPRK’s nuclear breakout by collaboration that assists it to develop small light water reactors (LWRs) that are safe, reliable, and above all, safeguarded, and integrates its enrichment capacity into a regional enrichment consortium, possibly as part of a Northeast Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone.” [LWR]
• China Says N.Korea Has Right to Nuclear Power
  Jiang Yu Beijing says North Korea has the right to use nuclear power but should be subject to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The North recently agreed to the return of IAEA inspectors to nuclear facilities. [Nuclear energy]
• Minju Joson Brands US as Mastermind of Nuclear Proliferation
  Pyongyang, December 19 (KCNA) -- Germany's proposal calling for the withdrawal of the U.S. nukes from NATO member countries was supported by Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Luxemburg in October. Commenting on the fact, a news analyst of Minju Joson, a leading newspaper of the DPRK, says on Sunday: This demand growing in Europe reflects the unanimous desire of humankind for prevention of a nuclear war and shows that it is ripe in political and diplomatic aspect for Europe to raise this matter. The U.S. moves to keep nukes in European countries are a challenge to the trend of the present times toward disarmament against nuclear war. It is the ambition and nuclear strategy of the U.S. to put the world under its domination by holding monopoly over nukes and supremacy in strategic striking weapons. [Nuclear weapons]
• Tension on the Korean peninsula – prospects for a nuclear-weapon-free zone
  On 23 November North Korean North Korean troops bombarded Yeonpyeong, an island in disputed waters, with dozens of rounds of artillery, killing two South Korean soldiers and two civilians and injuring around 20 other people. Seoul placed its military on its highest non-wartime alert level, scrambling F-16 fighter jets to the western sea and returning fire. The United States dispatched the aircraft carrier George Washington based in US Naval Base Yokosuka, Japan to join military exercises with South Korea in show of force. North Korea claimed that the attacks were in response to artillery fire from South Korean forces into disputed maritime territory. The increasingly tense situation highlights a number of aspects of the Korean conflict including the fact that the boundary between the two countries remains in dispute, the parties have not yet been able to negotiate a formal agreement ending the war of 1950-53, and the risks arising from development of nuclear weapons by North Korea - supposedly to counter a perceived threat to them from US nuclear weapons and the US nuclear alliances with Japan and South Korea. In this context, PNND members have been exploring options for reducing the nuclear threats in the region including denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and the possibilities for a NE Asian Nuclear-Weapon Free Zone. [NWFZ]
• 6-Party Talks Are Pointless Without Full Inspections in N.Korea
  China recently informed South Korea that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il "is willing to consider" allowing inspections of the North's nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo, who visited Pyongyang last week, quoted Kim as saying "I know what you mean" when pressed to allow IAEA inspectors back into North Korea. The North expelled inspectors in April 2009 and removed seals and surveillance cameras that had been placed at the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
• An Initial Exploration of the Potential for Deep Borehole Disposal of Nuclear Wastes in South Korea
  By Jungmin Kang December 16, 2010 In order for a Korea-Japan Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (KJNWFZ) to be a long-lasting and effective arrangement, it will be necessary to assure that nuclear energy fuel cycle issues that relate to potential nuclear weapons development/production in Japan and the ROK are addressed to the satisfaction of each party. Both Japan and the ROK are facing significant challenges in managing their nuclear spent fuel, which is in part driving the desire to reprocess spent fuel in both countries. This challenge offers an opportunity to collaborate on spent fuel management, which could include working together and with other countries of the region to develop safeguarded interim spent fuel storage facilities and/or more permanent storage/disposal facilities. The latter could be a concept that Nautilus and others are currently exploring, permanent disposal of spent fuels and other nuclear wastes using “deep borehole disposal”, where wastes are isolated from the biosphere in boreholes three to five kilometers deep, drilled with fairly conventional petroleum exploration techniques. [NWFZ]
• N.Korea's Nuke Tech 'Much More Advanced' Than Iran's
  North Korea's uranium enrichment program "appears to be much more advanced and efficient than the Iranian program, which is running into problems," according to the White House coordinator for weapons of mass destruction Gary Samore. He was quoted as making the comment by the New York Times on Tuesday. Iran has been "experimenting with advanced centrifuges," but has failed to "install them on an industrial scale, despite years of efforts," due to international sanctions. The North, however, has dodged economic sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council and the U.S., the daily reported. (see below) [LWR] [Sanctions] [MISCOM] [Intelligence]
• N.Korean Uranium Facility Points to 'Iran Connection'
  The U.S. urgently sent its Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth to Seoul after North Korea unveiled a huge facility for uranium enrichment. A senior South Korean government official said Monday the rapid response came because the facility "highly likely" indicates a nuclear connection between the North and Iran. According to South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies, the facility the North Koreans showed to nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker "appear similar in design to those used at Natanz, the Iranian nuclear fuel production site," the New York Times said Sunday. Iran has been developing a nuclear program using uranium enrichment since the mid-1980s. It has massive uranium enrichment facilities with centrifuges in Natanz and Qom. In August, it began operating a nuclear power plant using enriched uranium as fuel. Robert Carlin, a researcher at Stanford University who visited the North alongside Hecker, was quoted by VOA on Sunday as saying, "The North likely got help with the new facility from Pakistan or Iran." (see above} [LWR] [Sanctions] [MISCOM] [Intelligence]
• Activity at N.Korean Nuclear Sites Sparks Frenzied Speculation
  North Korea has dug a new tunnel more than 500 m deep at a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province, intelligence sources said Tuesday. The North is also reportedly accelerating massive excavation work and construction of a new building at its main nuclear site in Yongbyon. "North Korea seems to be busy digging even in winter when the ground is frozen" at Punggye-ri and Yongbyon, a South Korean intelligence officer said. Based on an estimate of the amount of earth dug up, the intelligence officer speculated that the North has already dug a cave more than 500 m deep in Punggye-ri. "If progress goes on at the current pace, the North will have dug a cave 1 km deep, the depth where it is possible to conduct a nuclear test, between March and May next year," the officer said. [Test]
• NK leader Kim Jong reveals intention to allow IAEA nuke inspection
  2010-12-15 22:34 Voiceware Text President Lee seeks support for S.Korea-Malaysia ties on nuclear energy Art houses stand out in Hannam-dong Korea pledges full support for PyeongChang Winter Olympic bid First female reserve officers program opens at Sookmyung Students, police clash as U.K. approves tuition hike Korea, Malaysia to push for FTA BOK stays positive on 2011 outlook DP steps up struggle against ruling camp Doctors try to calm ‘superbug’ fears Charges filed as legal battle over Hyundai E&C acquisition grows North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly revealed his intention to accept an IAEA nuclear inspection in a recent meeting with Chinese State Council Dai Bingguo, local broadcaster MBC reported Wednesday. Citing a government source, it said Kim had certain “complicating” preconditions to be met before it would go ahead with the inspections. However, Kim expressed his willingness to let the IAEA look at the country’s nuke facilities, MBC said. Details of the preconditions given by Kim were unknown. This is the first time the communist nation has revealed its intention to permit an inspection of its nuke facilities, which was a mandatory condition for the reopening of the six-party talks for South Korea, the United States and Japan. From news reports [IAEA]
• Deep Borehole Disposal of Nuclear Spent Fuel and High Level Waste as a Focus of Regional East Asia Nuclear Fuel Cycle Cooperation
  By David von Hippel and Peter Hayes December 13, 2010 Peter Hayes, Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, and David von Hippel, Nautilus Institute Senior Associate, explore the feasibility of deep borehole nuclear waste storage in East Asia. The report presents summaries of the current concept of deep borehole disposal of nuclear wastes, key unknowns and uncertainties about deep borehole-related technologies as they apply to nuclear spent fuel disposal, the status of deep borehole research both internationally and in the countries of the region, and--finally--next steps in the exploration of the applicability of the deep borehole concept to cooperative nuclear waste management solutions in East Asia.
• Strategy for a Northeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone as a step to "Common Security"
  By Yuasa Ichiro December 9, 2010 Yuasa Ichiro, President of the Peace Depot, writes, “The formation of a NEA-NWFZ will be a significant initial step to establish a non- military security in Northeast Asia. Through the multilateral treaty talks, confidence among concerned nations will be built. It could also be an opportunity to pave the way to an agreement of no attack and renunciation of war. This is indeed a process toward a "Common security" in the region and I strongly believe that the cooperation of citizens in the Asia-Pacific area to this end would contribute greatly to reduce the military expense.” [NWFZ]
• N.Korea's Curious Relationship with U.S. Nuclear Expert
  Siegfried Hecker /Yonhap Dr. Siegfried Hecker, who shot to international prominence after visiting a North Korean uranium enrichment facility in mid November, is a senior figure in the U.S. nuclear academic community and now co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University after serving at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. North Korea has invited Hecker at several critical moments since 2002, when the second nuclear crisis erupted -- five times in all. On each occasion the North rolled out the red carpet and gave him exceptional access to its nuclear program, showing him plutonium samples and nuclear facilities. "It's a tactic to boost the North's negotiation power by showing off its nuclear capabilities to a scientist and making it a fait accompli through the media," said a diplomatic source. The U.S. government is said to be wary of Hecker's visits to North Korea, even though it uses the information he provides. The U.S. government worries that Hecker's reports damage its negotiating power because he is likely to be shown only the parts of the truth the North wants him to see. "I don't think Washington's North Korea policy has changed fundamentally as a result of Hecker's visits," said a government official. Hecker's first visit to the North came in January 2004 immediately after Pyongyang said it was reprocessing 8,000 used fuel rods. Hecker subsequently testified before Congress that the North showed him it has industrial capacity, equipment and technical knowhow to extract plutonium. After a visit in November 2006, immediately after the North's first nuclear test, Hecker reported that Pyongyang has "six to eight" nuclear weapons from extracting plutonium and that the nuclear test was successful. In August 2007 and February 2008, when the Yongbyon nuclear facilities was first disabled and then reactivated, the North again invited Hecker to tour the complex.
• North Korea Reveals Uranium Enrichment Facility and Light Water Reactor
  By Jack Pritchard and Nicole Finneman (nmf@keia.org) “We have learned rather serious lessons to not believe anyone. So to solve the energy problem in our country, we need to rely on ourselves. Therefore, we made the political decision to develop our own Light Water Reactor. And during the absence of Six Party Talks, we have begun construction on an LWR. We are doing our best to complete the LWR fuel cycle with no more wasted time. We are mobilizing R&D efforts and research to enhance our nuclear capacity.” -- Senior Official from the General Bureau of Atomic Energy in a discussion with KEI’s Jack Pritchard and Nicole Finnemann on November 5, 2010 at the Yongbyon Nuclear Facility, North Korea. [LWR]
• China Told U.S. of Underwater Nuclear Plant in N.Korea
  China obtained information in 2008 that North Korea has a secret underwater nuclear facility in its coastal waters, leaked U.S. diplomatic cables show. According to a Sept. 26, 2008 cable from the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai disclosed by WikiLeaks, a North Korea expert in Shanghai announced this in a meeting about the six-party nuclear talks with Christopher Beede, the political and economic chief at the consulate. The expert said the nuclear declaration the North submitted to China, the chair of the six-party talks, in May the same year was "incomplete" and Beijing had information that the North had a secret underwater nuclear facility. "For this reason, a debate has emerged within the Chinese leadership" over the six-party talks, he added. The source said some Chinese leaders believed that "continued momentum in the six-party talks is critical to their success" and that "Washington must adopt a more flexible attitude." Others took the "incomplete nuclear declaration as evidence that the regime in Pyongyang is truly 'a ticking time bomb'" and regarded "Washington's tough stance on verification as a potential opportunity" to control the North. But a senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday said the cable "is not true. If it were true, would participating nations of the six-party talks have kept quiet?"
• U.S.: N.Korea Likely to Be Hiding More Nuclear Sites
  U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency Glyn Davies /AP The United States says North Korea may be hiding more nuclear sites with potential military uses after revealing its construction of a uranium enrichment facility.
• Giving North Korea the Bomb
  By Jennifer Lind and Daryl Press North Korea has nuclear weapons—or does it? According to the conventional wisdom, North Korea’s October 2006 nuclear test marked the country’s entrée into the nuclear club, and the May 2009 explosion confirmed that it is improving and presumably expanding its small arsenal. Last week’s revelation about North Korea’s uranium enrichment efforts seems to bolster the image of North Korea as a real nuclear weapons state—efficiently plugging away to expand its small but growing arsenal. [Nuclear weapons] [Intelligence]
• Fallout from a US treaty failure
  By James Carroll November 29, 2010 LAST WEEK the Energy Department’s inspector general cited 16 incidents in which agents driving trucks carrying nuclear weapons were intoxicated. Two were arrested at a bar. The astounding revelation that convoys carrying the world’s most lethal material could be so carelessly handled came in the week that Senator Jon Kyl dug in his heels to prevent a Senate vote on the New Start Treaty between the United States and Russia. Kyl’s refusal makes real the prospect that the nuclear reduction accord will not be ratified. Only one Republican is on record as ready to vote yes. The dread consequences of this treaty failure are described by the commentariat in relation to discrete problems with Russia (no inspections, no reset), Iran (an affronted Russia won’t help pressure Tehran), or Obama’s broader foreign policy (mortally wounded), but the true stakes are far higher — a final defeat of the hard-won international consensus that nuclear weapons are in a category apart, requiring a steady movement, however incremental, from limitation to reduction to an ultimate abolition. Once the recognition occurs that, as Ronald Reagan put it, a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, the logic of nuclear elimination follows, even allowing for a long diplomatic process. That’s why the hawkish Reagan himself became abolition’s fiercest advocate. [Nuclear weapons]
• N.Korean Media Boasts About Uranium Enrichment Facilities
  North Korea is operating a modern uranium enrichment plant equipped with "thousands" of centrifuges, the state-run Rodong Sinmun daily said Tuesday. It was the first time the North Korean media referred to the uranium centrifuges since the North showed a plant in Yongbyon to U.S. nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker. The claim came in an article discussing the "global trend" to develop and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The article said a light-water nuclear reactor is being built and that uranium enrichment is taking place to fuel it. Around 2,000 centrifuges can enrich enough uranium for one to two nuclear warheads a year. [LEU] [Media]

• U.S. scientist amazed by N. Korean nuclear facility
  By the CNN Wire Staff November 24, 2010 -- Updated 0424 GMT (1224 HKT) Scientist saw North Korea nuclear facility STORY HIGHLIGHTS Facility was pristine; scientist Siegfried Hecker was asked to remove the dirt from his shoes He took notes as he toured the modern North Korean facility A technician said he had been ordered by his supervisors to conduct the tour The facility was producing low-enriched uranium, Hecker reported Washington (CNN) -- The facility was so clean that the North Koreans asked Siegfried Hecker to stomp his feet before he ascended the polished granite steps. He had to get all the dirt off his shoes. Hecker had seen the chief technical officer on previous trips to Yongbyon. But never had he beamed with such pride. The new facility was not Soviet-like at all but was so modern that it could easily be in the United States. But the officer also told Hecker, a Stanford University scientist, that he didn't want to show off the facility. His superiors had ordered him to show it to the Americans. Hecker and his colleagues hurried around the place, around busy operators and flashing monitors, with paper and pen in hand, scribbling furiously. How often are Americans invited into a North Korean nuclear facility? Hecker's jaw dropped. "I said: 'Oh my God, they actually did what they said they were going to do.' " The Stanford University scientist visited Yongbyon on November 12 and later reported what he saw: a facility, which included 2,000 centrifuges, that was producing low-enriched uranium. It could, he wrote, "be readily converted to produce highly-enriched uranium (HEU) bomb fuel." Speaking to reporters Tuesday -- a day the world was again put on edge by a skirmish between North and South Korea, and when the world again speculated on North Korea's nuclear program -- Hecker said he told the North Koreans that their ability to convert the facility to make a highly enriched bomb fuel would alarm other nations. But the North Koreans were playing a good public relations game, Hecker said. A technician told him that anyone could tell by the monitors in the control room that the facility was configured for low-enriched fuel. Besides, he told Hecker, others could think what they wanted. The North Koreans, he said, wanted a U.S. scientist to tell the world about their facility. "Eventually, it was going to be seen from the outside that they're building a reactor, and so they could essentially short-circuit the hype that goes with that and say we're really building a light water reactor and we have a nuclear expert here to tell the world it is a light water reactor," Hecker said. "I think the other message was: 'Look, don't underestimate us. We're not about to come to our knees.' " Separately on Tuesday, Leon Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York, told CNN he was in North Korea last week for meetings with various government officials. "The basic message was: 'We really want to sit down and negotiate with the U.S. and the others,'" said Sigal, about the government's position on its nuclear programs. "They made it clear they want to negotiate." He said officials there said they would be willing to ship spent fuel rods, which can be used to make weapons-grade plutonium, out of North Korea if the United States would commit to saying it has no hostile intent towards North Korea. The move would effectively dismantle one of country's nuclear arms programs, Sigal said.
• Seoul Eyes Fresh Deployment of U.S. Nukes
  Kim Tae-young Seoul will consider the deployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea in response to North Korea's unveiling of a uranium enrichment facility, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said Monday. He said a joint committee between Seoul and Washington on nuclear deterrence "will review issues related to the deployment." The U.S. withdrew its nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991. [Nuclear weapons]
• N.Korea's Uranium Enrichment Facility 'a Ploy'
  North Korea's unveiling of a uranium enrichment facility to a U.S. expert "may be a ploy designed to threaten the international community," according to a senior North Korean defector who was involved in the North's nuclear and missile development programs. The North showed what it said was a large uranium enrichment facility to Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear expert and co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. "If Pyongyang had really succeeded in making highly enriched uranium and producing nuclear weapons, it would have hidden it rather than making it public," the defector said Monday. He interpreted the unveiling as a ploy to get the North out of dire straits caused by a botched currency reform late last year and an exhausted treasury due to the expensive power transfer to leader Kim Jong-il's son. The North is getting desperate and trying to win concessions from the international community by ratcheting up the nuclear threat, he said. [Defector] [Media]
• N.Korea 'Could Have More Uranium Facilities'
  South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea's uranium enrichment facilities may be more extensive than the one shown to a visiting U.S. nuclear expert. "We believe there are more centrifuges [for uranium enrichment] than those it revealed," an intelligence official said.
• What Is N.Korea's Uranium Facility for?
  U.S. nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker has said that a uranium enrichment facility he was shown in North Korea seemed intended for civilian use, a claim which ties in with plans the North revealed earlier to build an experimental light-water reactor. But the New York Times quoted U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates as saying such a claim cannot be trusted. "South Korea and the U.S. are confident that the North Korean centrifuges are for military purposes," a diplomat said. And a South Korean government official said, "South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities have concluded that North Korea is not capable of building a light-water reactor. It seems to have shown the construction site to make it look like the centrifuges are designed to enrich uranium for power generation rather than for weapons production." Enriching natural uranium to 3-5 percent produces fuel for light-water reactors. But enriching it to more than 90 percent yields the ingredients for a nuclear bomb. It is up to North Korea how much it intends to enrich the uranium, and it is difficult to judge the purpose based solely on the centrifuges.
• How Many Nuclear Bombs Can N.Korea Produce?
  After revealing that North Korea is operating a large facility to enrich uranium, experts now estimate it can produce one or two nuclear bombs a year. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was produced using 64.1 kg of highly enriched uranium, which had the explosive power of 15,000 tons of TNT. Fissile material capable of delivering that explosive power is considered one nuclear bomb. In 1945, technology allowed up to 70 percent uranium enrichment, but now 90 percent or higher is possible, meaning just 20 to 25 kg is enough
• South Korea Might Seek Return of U.S. Nukes
  Monday, Nov. 22, 2010 South Korea might request to again host U.S. tactical nuclear weapons, the Financial Times reported today (see GSN, April 21). Defense Minister Kim Tae-young discussed the matter today with South Korean lawmakers following reports that Pyongyang had allowed a U.S. scientist to view a previously secret uranium enrichment facility (see related GSN story, today). Lawmakers questioned Kim on the possible return of U.S. nuclear weapon to South Korea. He responded, "I will review what you said in consultation with members of the [U.S.-South Korean] Extended Deterrence Policy Committee." Washington is believed to have pulled its tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991. Kim's statement is sure to aggravate the neighboring regime and to worry China and Japan -- two members of the six-party talks aimed at North Korean denuclearization, according to the Times. Former South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said in April that Seoul had no intention of again hosting U.S. nonstrategic nuclear arms. However, there is support for such a move among harder-line elements in the country. "Even though relocating nuclear weapons to South Korea could provoke China or Russia, it could be an effective tool to press the North," said analyst Cheon Seong-whun (Christian Oliver, Financial Times, Nov. 22). The United States keeps 28,500 military personnel in South Korea as defense against the North and says its ally remains under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella (Xinhua News Agency, Nov. 22). [Nuclear weapons]
• DPRK Enriched Uranium Highlights Need for New US DPRK Policy
  By Peter Hayes November 22, 2010 Peter Hayes, Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, writes that the United States must, “shift the frame of reference from one focused solely on the DPRK’s nuclear threat to a regional strategy that creates a nuclear weapon free zone covering the two Koreas and Japan… This approach would recognize the DPRK as a legitimate state, but deny it nuclear weapons state-status, and calibrate its gains from joining the Zone to the pace of its nuclear disarmament, especially guarantees from nuclear weapons states to not target it… putting a plausible and credible zone in place that would stabilize the situation, devalue the DPRK’s nuclear capacities, and put the six parties back onto the denuclearization track.” [WFZ] [LEU]
• Seoul to consider redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons
  2010-11-22 19:05 Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said Monday that South Korea would consider the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in consultation with Washington as one of the options to deal with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. His comment followed a report that the North showed a new uranium enrichment plant purportedly with some 2,000 centrifuges installed and running to Siegfried Hecker, a U.S. scientist who visited the communist state earlier this month. “We will review (the redeployment) when (Korea and the U.S.) meet to consult on the matter at a committee for nuclear deterrence,” Kim said during a parliamentary committee session. He was referring to the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee that is to serve as a cooperation channel between the two allies to improve the effectiveness of the extended deterrence, which means enhanced U.S. nuclear commitment for its ally. At the 42nd Security Consultative Meeting in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 8, Defense Minister Kim and his U.S. counterpart Robert Gates agreed to establish the special committee. “We will closely discuss that after organizing the committee. We will conscientiously prepare ourselves regarding this matter with both having serious concerns,” said Kim. “The Seoul government is closely cooperating with the U.S. in terms of intelligence sharing. So, (the revelation of the new uranium enrichment facility) did not come as a sudden surprise to us.” Later in the day, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press release that the government has never considered the redeployment, and that there has not been any concrete consultation yet over the matter between the two countries. With the North abruptly conducting nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, citizens here have voiced concerns over how to deal with the North’s asymmetric weapons. Some scholars have called for the redeployment of U.S. tactical weapons as a counterbalance against the North’s nuclear arsenal. Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush announced in September 1991 that the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons would be withdrawn from the peninsula as well as other overseas installations.
  The redeployment does not appear to be easy as it runs counter to the current Obama administration’s vision of a “nuclear-free world.” It was the first time for the U.S. to agree on founding the standing cooperative committee concerning the extended deterrence with its ally except for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldm.com) [Nuclear weapons]
• N.Korea Has 'Ultra-Modern' Uranium Enrichment Facility
  North Korea has unveiled a large uranium-enrichment facility to a U.S. expert. Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear expert and co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, visited the North early this month and North Korean officials showed him the facility equipped with hundreds of centrifuges, the New York Times reported Sunday. Hecker said he was "stunned" by the sophisticated installation of centrifuges used to enrich uranium 235, an isotope of uranium making up a mere 0.7 percent of natural uranium, to more than 90 percent. This facility was unknown to the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency when the last group of inspectors were expelled from the north in April 2009. Hecker said that the centrifuges were operated from "an ultra-modern control room." "The North Koreans claimed 2,000 centrifuges were already installed and running," the daily quoted him as saying. A former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Hecker reported to the White House upon arriving in Washington. "These facilities appear to be designed primarily for civilian nuclear power, not to boost North Korea's military capability," Hecker wrote in a report on his visit. But he added it "could be readily converted to produce highly enriched uranium bomb fuel (or parallel facilities could exist elsewhere)." Meeting reporters in Beijing on Nov. 13 right after he returned from Pyongyang, he also said the North claimed to be building a light-water nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, North Pyongan Province. The North also showed the construction site of what it said was a 100 MW light-water reactor to Jack Pritchard, the president of the Korea Economic Institute in Washington and a former U.S. nuclear envoy. The U.S. responded immediately. The Obama administration last Saturday sent a delegation led by Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, to discuss the matter with South Korea, Japan and China, which are partners in six-party talks on the North’s nuclear program. He met South Korean officials in Seoul on Sunday and is to fly to Tokyo on Monday and to Beijing on Tuesday. The U.S. believes the North's uranium enrichment program violates UN Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874 adopted in the aftermath of its two nuclear tests, and is seeking remedies through the UN. [LEU]
• N.Korea's Nuclear Development Must Be Stopped
  North Korea showed visiting American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker a uranium enrichment facility containing hundreds of centrifuges, the New York Times reported Sunday. Hecker, a Stanford professor who has led the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said he was "stunned" by the sophistication of the new plant, which contained "an ultra-modern control room" that oversaw what the North Koreans claimed were 2,000 centrifuges. If North Korea has indeed succeeded in acquiring uranium enrichment technology, the nuclear crisis would enter a completely new phase.
• The Truth About N.Korea's Uranium Enrichment Program
  Siegfried Hecker, the co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, talks to the press in Beijing on Nov. 13 after visiting North Korea. /AP-Yonhap North Korea's uranium enrichment program first made headlines in October 2002, when then U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs James Kelly visited Pyongyang. When Kelly raised suspicions about the program, first North Korean vice foreign minister Kang Sok-ju, now a vice premier, reportedly said Pyongyang has "the right" to carry out the program and "make more powerful weapons." This sparked what is known as the second North Korean nuclear crisis. But in January 2003 it suddenly denied it has such a program, starting off a tedious series of claims and counterclaims that saw the issue mostly kept off the table during six-party nuclear talks. Ahead of the presidential election in 2002, South Korean left-wingers took sides with the North and said the program was invented by neocons in the U.S. to ratchet up tensions. Some blamed the American interpreter for mishearing the original admission. Yet all members of the U.S. delegation, which included Jack Prichard, a nuclear envoy, and David Straub, the director of the State Department's Korea desk, as well as Kelly himself were dovish officials who were opposed to neocons' hardline policy. They had no reason to distort the statement at the time. The Roh Moo-hyun administration also dismissed the threat. Unification minister Lee Jae-joung told the National Assembly in July 2007 there were "no intelligence reports" that the North has uranium enrichment program. Foreign minister Song Min-soon also said "even a mere conceptual design on a sheet of paper" could be described as a uranium enrichment "program." But early this month, a U.S. nuclear expert took a first-hand look at hundreds of centrifuges for uranium enrichment in the North. "Since the latter part of the 1990s, the North has persistently carried out a uranium enrichment program while importing centrifuges from Pakistan," a South Korean security official said. "As a result of the former administrations' deliberate disregard to it for 10 years under the Sunshine Policy, the crisis is now coming to a head." [HEU] [Admission]
• North Korea's uranium plant sends a chilling message to Washington
  The West's policy of trying to cut Pyongyang off from nuclear supplies has been shown to be failing miserably Julian Borger, diplomatic editor guardian.co.uk, Sunday 21 November 2010 19.56 GMT Article history Siegfried Hecker: the man who used to run the US nuclear weapons laboratories at Los Alamos, was taken aback by the advanced state of North Korea's uranium enrichment plant on a recent visit. Photograph: Dennis Cook/AP North Korea does not as a rule give American academics tours of its most sensitive nuclear sites. Siegried Hecker was shown around Yongbyon not out of a sudden spirit of scientific openness, but to send a message to Washington. That message said: not only are we enriching uranium, we are already very good at it. Hecker, who used to run the US nuclear weapons laboratories at Los Alamos, was whisked around the new enrichment facility with his mouth agape. The place was much bigger than he imagined and much more modern.
• Confirmed uranium enrichment marks new stage in N.Korea nuclear issue
  Six-party talks envoys have begun to embark on By Kang Tae-ho, Senior Staff Writer A U.S. nuclear expert reported on Saturday that North Korea has a large-scale uranium enrichment facility. Since this facility is capable of making the raw materials for nuclear weapons, the announcement marks a new stage in the North Korea nuclear issue. Following the disclosure, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth set out Saturday (local time) on an urgent visit to South Korea, China, and Japan. Siegfried Hecker, co-director of the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation, said in a New York Times interview Saturday that during his visit to the country last week, North Korea showed him a large-scale uranium enrichment facility equipped with hundreds of centrifuges. Heckler added the centrifuges appeared to have been recently built and were operated from an “ultra-modern control room.” He also said the country claimed to have two thousand centrifuges up and running. Regarding Bosworth’s visit, a South Korean government official said, “We received word from the U.S. suddenly and without prior discussions,” indicating a rapid decision made by the White House after receiving Hecker’s report on the facility, based on the determination that discussions were needed among the participant countries in the six-party talks to resolve the North Korea nuclear issue.
• Arms Bid Seen in New N. Korea Plant
  By DAVID E. SANGER and JOSEPH BERGER Published: November 21, 2010 American defense officials said Sunday that the revelation of North Korea’s new uranium enrichment facility confirmed longstanding suspicions that the country was seeking a second route to build atomic weapons. They dismissed the North’s claim that it was simply trying to build nuclear power plants denied to them by the West. The description emerging of the new facility at Yongbyon, the North’s main nuclear plant, raised a number of critical questions that American and Asian intelligence agencies were struggling to answer.
• US: NKorea's nuke claim provocative, not surprise
  By KELLY OLSEN The Associated Press Monday, November 22, 2010; 1:30 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- The U.S. special envoy for North Korea said Monday that Pyongyang's claim of a new uranium enrichment facility is provocative and disappointing but not a crisis or a surprise. Washington, he vowed, will keep working closely with its regional partners in response. Stephen Bosworth's comments, following a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, came as the United States and the North's neighbors scrambled to deal with Pyongyang's revelation to a visiting American nuclear scientist of a highly sophisticated, modern enrichment operation that had what the North says are 2,000 recently completed centrifuges.
• North Koreans Unveil Vast New Plant for Nuclear Use
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: November 20, 2010 WASHINGTON — North Korea showed a visiting American nuclear scientist earlier this month a vast new facility it secretly and rapidly built to enrich uranium, confronting the Obama administration with the prospect that the country is preparing to expand its nuclear arsenal or build a far more powerful type of atomic bomb. Whether the calculated revelation is a negotiating ploy by North Korea or a signal that it plans to accelerate its weapons program even as it goes through a perilous leadership change, it creates a new challenge for President Obama at a moment when his program for gradual, global nuclear disarmament appears imperiled at home and abroad. The administration hurriedly began to brief allies and lawmakers on Friday and Saturday — and braced for an international debate over the repercussions. The scientist, Siegfried S. Hecker, a Stanford professor who previously directed the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in an interview that he had been “stunned” by the sophistication of the new plant, where he saw “hundreds and hundreds” of centrifuges that had just been installed in a recently gutted building that had housed an aging fuel fabrication center, and that were operated from what he called “an ultra-modern control room.” The North Koreans claimed 2,000 centrifuges were already installed and running, he said. American officials know that the plant did not exist in April 2009, when the last Americans and international inspectors were thrown out of the country. The speed with which it was built strongly suggests that the impoverished, isolated country, which tested its first nuclear device in 2006, had foreign help and evaded strict new United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed to punish its rejection of international controls. [HEU]
• US reacts with alarm to N Korea report
  By Daniel Dombey in Washington Published: November 21 2010 05:34 | Last updated: November 21 2010 07:03 The US has reacted with alarm to a report that North Korea has built a new uranium enrichment facility producing material that can be used for making nuclear weapons. The State Department said on Saturday night that Stephen Bosworth, US special envoy for North Korea, was on his way to Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing in the wake of allegations that Pyongyang had built a facility with thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium. The process can yield both nuclear fuel and fissile material for weapons. A senior administration official said that the US had sent Mr Bosworth and his team to partners in the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme “to begin to coordinate on a response to this news”. “North Korea’s claim to have a uranium enrichment programme is yet another provocative act of defiance and, if true, contradicts its own pledges and commitments,” the official added. North Korea has said since last year that it has a uranium enrichment programme, although its claims have been shrouded in uncertainty over the extent and effectiveness of any such programme. But in a report published at the weekend, Siegfried Hecker, a US nuclear scientist who visited the country last week, said he had seen what the North Koreans claimed was an enrichment facility with 2,000 centrifuges. He added that its size “significantly exceeds my estimates and that of most other analysts”, although he was not able to confirm that it was fully operational. “The first look was stunning,” Mr Hecker wrote. “Instead of seeing a few small cascades of centrifuges, which I believed to exist in North Korea, we saw a modern clean centrifuge plant of more than a thousand centrifuges all neatly aligned and plumbed below us.” He added that the control room was “astonishingly modern”. Mr Hecker’s revelation about the uranium facility was first reported in the New York Times. The scientist said the facilities appeared to be “designed primarily for civilian nuclear power.” But he said they could be readily converted to produce highly-enriched uranium bomb fuel, and that parallel facilities could exist elsewhere. The US broke off a Clinton-era agreement with North Korea in 2002, when then President George W Bush accused Pyongyang of “enriching uranium with a desire of developing a weapon”. But by 2007 US intelligence agencies said they only had “mid-confidence” – substantially less than what they would call “high confidence” – that a North Korean uranium enrichment programme actually existed. “It’s wrong for anyone to assert that US intelligence agencies somehow missed the boat,” said a senior US intelligence official. “We’ve been aware of North Korea’s uranium enrichment activities for years.” North Korea already has enough fissile material for several nuclear devices but, to date, it has used the alternative route of producing plutonium rather than highly-enriched uranium. North Korea has disabled the Yongbyon nuclear reactor that produced the plutonium. However, Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security last week published satellite images showing the construction of a new reactor on the site. Mr Hecker said he had been told that the facility would be a light water reactor, which is not well suited for producing fissile material but which uses low-enriched uranium as fuel .
• A Return Trip to North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Complex
  Siegfried S. Hecker
  Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University November 20, 2010 Summary On November 12, during my most recent visit to the Yongbyon Nuclear Complex with Stanford University colleagues John W. Lewis and Robert Carlin, we were shown a 25 to 30 megawatt-electric (MWe) experimental light-water reactor (LWR) in the early stages of construction. It is North Korea’s first attempt at LWR technology and we were told it is proceeding with strictly indigenous resources and talent. The target date for operation was said to be 2012, which appears much too optimistic. At the fuel fabrication site, we were taken to a new facility [HEU] [US NK policy]
• Korea may be better off with no Turkish nuclear deal
  By Kim Tae-gyu Many were disappointed after Korea failed to strike a mega deal on nuclear energy exports with Turkey in spite of last-ditch efforts by the Presidents of the two countries earlier this month. To the dismay of the Korean government and nuclear-related industries, Turkey even said that the country might seek an alternative player like Japan to materialize the nuclear project. But the failure of the talks might be blessing in disguise. People tend to believe that the Turkish deal was as good as the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) contract; but in reality this is not the case. The failed Turkish deal is about the construction of a pair of nuclear reactors on the Black Sea in Sinop, whose value is expected to approach $10 billion. The UAE deal is the $20 billion agreement under which the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) will build four nuclear reactors by 2020. [Nuclear energy]
• N.Korea's Twin Nuclear Threats
  North Korea appears to be weighing two options: conducting a third nuclear test or building a light-water nuclear reactor(sic). Japanese media on Thursday quoted a Japanese government official as saying North Korea appears to be "preparing for a nuclear test" by building a new shaft at its test facility in Punggye-ri. "This is clearly visible through satellite images. It would not be surprising if North Korea conducts a nuclear test at any time," he said. [Media] [LWR] [Double standards]
• Korea to Launch New Satellite Next Year
  A new Korean earth observation satellite dubbed Arirang 5 will be launched from the Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia in June or July next year, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Thursday. The Arirang 2, which is already in the orbit, is incapable of observing the earth surface on cloudy days or at nights, but the Arirang 5 can shoot photos of the earth's surface in all weathers, day and night, using microwave cameras. It will shoot photos of various regions around the world, orbiting around about 15 times a day from 550 km above the surface for five years after its launch. It will serve various purposes, including watching for disasters and finding out how various kinds of natural resources are used, while shooting three-dimensional images of regions the Arirang 2 is also observing. [Satellite]
• Al Qaeda's Nuclear Ambitions
  BY ROLF MOWATT-LARSSEN | NOVEMBER 16, 2010 American authorities managed to foil al Qaeda's latest plot to attack -- via hidden explosives in mail parcels -- but the long-term question remains unanswered: How can they ensure that they stay one step ahead of the terrorist group? The good news is that there's no need to wonder what the terrorists' strategic and tactical goals are -- one need only listen to what their leaders have already told us. The bad news is that we no doubt won't like what we hear. Al Qaeda's leaders yearn to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction against the United States; if they acquired a nuclear bomb, they would not hesitate to use it. Indeed, such an attack would be meant to serve as a sort of sequel to the 9/11 plot. [Nuclear terrorism]
• Pritchard Elaborates on N.Korean Reactor Claim
  Jack Pritchard, the president of the Korea Economic Institute in Washington, on Tuesday repeated North Korea's claim that it is building a light-water reactor under its own steam. Pritchard was talking to reporters about a five-day visit to the North that just ended. Quoting a North Korean official he met at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, he said the North claims to be building a 100 MW light-water nuclear reactor there. An earlier international pledge to build a light-water reactor for the North in return for nuclear disarmament was finally scrapped in 2006. Pritchard looked around the Yongbyon nuclear complex escorted by North Korean officials, who claimed the North is building the reactor near where the complex's now-demolished cooling tower stood. Early-stage construction appeared to be underway, with workers pouring concrete and putting rebar in concrete, he added. He said it appeared that the structure was about 20 m wide and more than 18 m high. He quoted the official in charge as saying that "all" construction projects in the North will be complete by 2012, the centenary of regime founder Kim Il-sung's birth. [Renege] [LWR]
• North Korea preparing third nuclear test: report
  Source: Global Times [08:02 November 18 2010] Comments By Evelyn Young South Korea is watching its northern neighbor closely amid reports of a pending nuclear test, following reports of preparatory works at a North Korean nuclear weapons test site, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday. Recent satellite images show heightened activities such as tunneling at the Punggyeri nuclear complex, where the second atomic test blast was detonated last year - three years after the first test in 2006, the report said.
• Seoul unsure of alleged North Korean reactor project
  Source: Global Times [08:36 November 16 2010] Comments Following reports that North Korea was working toward building a light-water nuclear reactor, South Korea said Monday it had no information concerning this alleged project. Kim Young-sun, a spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that the project, if confirmed, "would be going contrary to expectations from members of the Six-Party Talks and the international community." Siegfried Hecker, a US scientist who traveled to North Korea last week, told Japanese public broadcaster NHK on Saturday that North Korean officials had informed him that work had started on such a reactor. "They were saying that they are constructing a small experimental light-water reactor (at Yongbyon), which could eventually reach about 25 to 30 megawatts," Hecker said. Light-water reactors are generally used for civilian nuclear purposes with experts saying it would be relatively difficult to extract plutonium from them to make atomic weapons. Some analysts say the North may be showing off its overall atomic expertise in the hopes of encouraging the US to resume the stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks. Shen Yi, an associate professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, told the Global Times that a light-water nuclear reactor had nothing to do with nuclear arms. "Should the reported project be true, I view it as a positive step made by Pyongyang toward denuclearization and the resumption of the six-party nuclear talks," he added. Agencies - Global Times [LWR] [Nuclear energy]
• Egypt Voices Concern Over Probe of HEU Traces
  Monday, Nov. 15, 2010 Egypt's atomic agency in a secret report said Cairo's interests faced potential harm from an International Atomic Energy Agency investigation into the origin of highly enriched uranium particles found in the country, the Associated Press reported on Friday (see GSN, June 10). The U.N. nuclear watchdog last year announced it had launched the probe after samples taken at the Inshas Nuclear Research Center in 2007 and 2008 tested positive for both low-enriched uranium, the type used in power plants, and highly enriched uranium nearly pure enough for use in weapons (see GSN, May 7, 2009). The Vienna-based agency has not accepted Cairo's assertion that the traces had mistakenly entered the country from elsewhere. [HEU]
• NKorea begins building light-water reactor
  (AP) – 2 days ago SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has begun building an experimental light-water reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, a news report said Saturday, in what could be an attempt to draw attention and press Washington to resume talks on Pyongyang's atomic programs. The reactor will be able to generate about 25 to 30 megawatts of electricity, Siegfried Hecker, former director of the U.S. Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, told reporters in Beijing after a trip to North Korea, according to Japan's Kyodo News agency. Hecker said construction of the reactor has just begun and is likely to take several years to complete, according to Kyodo. In March, North Korea said it would build a light-water power plant using its own nuclear fuel in the near future. Building a light-water reactor would give the country a reason to enrich uranium, which at low levels can be used in power reactors — and at higher levels in nuclear bombs. Recent satellite images of the Yongbyon complex have shown new activity there, the Institute for Science and International Security said in September. South Korea is aware of some movements at the nuclear complex and needs to further analyze North Korea's intentions, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Lee Byung-ryung, a South Korean nuclear expert who was involved in a now-canceled U.S.-led project to build two light-water reactors in North Korea, said a reactor of that size "doesn't appear to be a meaningful source of electricity because it is small." Under a 1994 deal to freeze North Korea's atomic program, the U.S. and other nations promised the energy-starved North two light-water reactors that would have be less likely to lead to nuclear proliferation. The deal collapsed in 2002 when the U.S. accused North Korea of running a secret uranium enrichment program. After nearly seven years of adamant denials, North Korea announced last year that it was in the final stages of uranium enrichment — a process that would give it a second way to build atomic bombs in addition to its earlier plutonium program. The reported construction "is a message to the United States that North Korea will keep working on its nuclear programs unless the U.S. comes forward to the six-nation talks," said Kim Yong-hyun, an expert on North Korean affairs at Seoul's Dongguk University. He also doubted any actual achievement of construction of the reactor. There has been no recent sign of progress in restarting stalled talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programs. All of North Korea's nuclear projects are of intense concern because of worries the country is building its arsenal of atomic weapons. Pyongyang carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing international condemnation and U.N. sanctions. Just before the second test, North Korea quit the nuclear talks, but it has recently expressed a willingness to rejoin the negotiations, which involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan. However, South Korea and the U.S. have said North Korea must first take specific moves to demonstrate its sincerity. [HEU] [Media] [LWR]
• Dangerous Nuclear Illusions
  By ROGER COHEN Published: November 11, 2010 LONDON — A world without nuclear weapons sounds nice, but of course that was the world that brought us World War I and World War II. If you like the sound of that, the touchy-feely “Global Zero” bandwagon is probably for you.
  The second aspect of the nuclear “vision” was strategic. The idea was that it would give the United States moral leverage in persuading nations to reduce their nuclear arsenals or abandon nuclear ambitions. It would also advance U.S. nonproliferation efforts designed, among other things, to ensure no terrorists ever acquire nukes. The most dangerous aspect of the 21st-century world is the potential ability of smaller and smaller groups to do greater and greater harm. Here the results have been mixed at best. Flournoy acknowledged that “the example that the U.S. sets probably won’t impact Iran or North Korea directly.” China continues to pursue the expansion and refinement of its nuclear arsenal. France, with its beloved “force de frappe,” was always publicly skeptical and privately contemptuous. Its recent defense accord with Britain was interesting for its inclusion of nuclear cooperation and for Prime Minister David Cameron’s statement that “we will always retain an independent nuclear deterrent.” Note the “always.”
  Perhaps Japan makes clearest why “Global Zero” is a stillborn idea. As the nation of Hiroshima, it has always pushed hard for disarmament. But as the nation facing North Korean nuclear testing and missiles, as well as an ever-stronger Chinese nuclear arsenal, it clings to the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Idealism will not keep it safe. [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards] [Inversion]
• DPR Korea’s nuclear programme still of serious concern, says UN official
  IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano addresses General Assembly 8 November 2010 – The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog today voiced concern over the nuclear programme of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), where inspectors have not been allowed access since April 2009. “The nuclear programme of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea remains a matter of serious concern,” Yukiya Amano told the General Assembly, as he presented his first report as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Agency’s inspectors were ordered out of the country in April 2009 after the Security Council condemned a DPRK rocket launch that month, deeming it to be in contravention of resolution 1718, which demanded that the country “not conduct any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile,” following its claims to have conducted a nuclear test in October 2006. [UNUS] [Double standards] [IAEA]
• Rethinking Extended Deterrence in Northeast Asia
  By Jeffrey Lewis November 3rd, 2010 Jeffrey Lewis, Director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation, writes “Rather than focusing on extended deterrence and nuclear capabilities in particular, I would suggest we think about what might be called “extended defense”­what are the actual capabilities that the United States and its allies in Northeast Asia would procure and deploy to deal with the most urgent threats? These are increasingly missile defenses and antisubmarine warfare capabilities, not nuclear cruise missiles and bomber bases. The excessive focus on nuclear capabilities has stunted the US dialogue with its security partners in Northeast Asia, wrongly placing the emphasis on ephemeral capabilities that will necessarily evolve instead of shared interests and values that will endure.” [Missile defense] [ASW]
• Korea Becomes World's Leading Nuclear Power Plant Exporter
  Updated : November 11, 2010 SEARCH The historic 40-billion US dollar contract with the United Arab Emirates last December to construct four 1,400 megawatt nuclear reactors in the region has elevated Korea's status as one of the leading nuclear power plant exporters in the world. Considered to be the East Asian country's biggest-ever construction deal to date, the decade-long project comes more than 30 years after the first Korean-made nuclear reactor, the Gori 1, went into operation in 1978. [Nuclear energy] [Double standards]
• US Plan for Realizing "World without Nuclear Weapons" Dismissed Hypocritical
  Pyongyang, October 26 (KCNA) -- Shortly ago, the United States conducted the sub-critical nuclear test under the pretence of "guaranteeing the stability of nuclear arsenal" and the like. Rodong Sinmun Tuesday says in a signed commentary in this regard: The sub-critical nuclear test glaringly disclosed the falsity and hypocrisy of the plan for realizing a "world without nuclear weapons" much touted by the Obama Administration. The Obama Administration which made its emergence early last year put forward the plan for realizing a "world without nuclear weapons" a few months after taking office, but this was nothing but a smokescreen to conceal the U.S. ambition to dominate the world by relying on nuclear weapons and deceive the world people. The responsibility for the nuclear threat and the danger of the nuclear war growing worldwide entirely rests with the U.S. [Test] [Double standards] [Disarmament]
• N.Korea Scores F on Nuclear 'Report Card'
  North Korea has been rated the worst country in the world in terms of nuclear arms reduction and nonproliferation. In a 2009-2010 report published Wednesday, the Arms Control Association of the U.S. gave the North an overall grade F for continuing nuclear tests and supplying other countries with nuclear materials and technology. [Nuclear weapons] [Chutzpah] [Inversion]

• Six-party talks depend on U.S. position: DPRK media
  English.news.cn 2010-10-28 PYONGYANG, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Leading media of Democratic People' s Republic Korea (DPRK) said the destiny of six-party talks and the future of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula depends on the position of the U.S. Rodong Sinmun of the DPRK said in an article that although the concerned countries hope the six-party talks can be resumed as early as possible to create advantageous environment for the peace and stability of north-east Asia and the world, the ambition of the U.S to preempt a nuclear attack on the DPRK put hurdle to the settlement of nuclear issue on the peninsula. Constructing permanent peace system and denuclearizing the peninsula is the firm position of the DPRK, the article said. It is necessary to eliminate the nuclear threat from outside to denuclearize the peninsula, and the DPRK having access to nuclear deterrent is good for the stability and peace of the area. [Denuclearisation] [Six Party Talks] [NK US policy]
• Link Nuclear Weapons Convention to Humanitarian Law, MPI Panel Told
  MPI Event Report October 18, 2010 (L-R): Ambassador Cabactulan, Senator Roche, Ambassador Strohal and Alyn Ware During the panel, "Routes to Elimination," on October 18, the President of the 2010 NPT Review Conference called on middle power states to link the quest for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) to renewed adherence to international humanitarian law. Ambassador Libran Cabactulan of the Philippines said the attention paid at the NPT Conference to humanitarian law, which prohibits mass destruction, should energize those working for a nuclear weapons free world. “The movement toward a Nuclear Weapons Convention needs a groundswell of public support,” Ambassador Cabactulan said. “The middle power states must start to act.”
  Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, called for preparatory work towards a Convention to be started immediately. "The first such preparatory conference could be held in 2011 in order to build on the momentum from the 2010 NPT Review Conference," he said. He outlined a number of practical measures that non-nuclear or nuclear weapon States could take to build the prohibition norm, develop implementation mechanisms, build political momentum, enhance non-nuclear security and phase out nuclear deterrence as part of a preparatory process for a NWC. [Nuclear weapons] [Disarmament]
• Chances of Another N.Korean Nuclear Test 'Low'
  Unification Minister Hyun In-taek on Friday said the government is watching North Korea closely for signs that the Stalinist country is preparing another nuclear test. Hyun was speaking during an audit of his ministry by the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee. But Hyun added the chances are "low" at the moment. Spy satellites have recently detected signs of suspicious activity at North Korea's nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province. Asked by a lawmaker how many nuclear weapons the North is believed to have made, ministry official Yang Chang-suk said about 10.
  "We believe that the North has embarked on a uranium enrichment program and is trying to get it to work," Hyun said. He added the North Korean regime is trying to boost the personality cult surrounding leader Kim Jong-il's son and heir Jong-un but warned the North can only expect a better future "if it joins the international community by resolving the nuclear issue and reforming and opening up." [Test] [HEU] [SN NK policy]
• Korea Looks for Ways to Sway U.S. Over Nuclear Reprocessing
  Korea could propose a memorandum of understanding to the U.S. about joint research on a safe method for the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, a government official said on Sunday. The two countries start talks in Washington on Monday about the revision of a bilateral nuclear energy agreement that expires in 2014 and prevents Seoul from reprocessing its own spent nuclear fuel rods. Korea is hoping that a technology known as pyroprocessing, which does not produce plutonium that is pure enough for nuclear weapons, may offer a way out. Scientists in the two countries will also conduct separate research to review the feasibility of pyroprocessing. [US dominance] [Client]
• China Must Stop Any N.Korean Nuclear Test
  South Korean and U.S. authorities have detected signs of unusual activity at North Korea's nuclear test site, leading to fears that it is preparing for another test. These include a lot of traffic and apparent repairs to a tunnel that collapsed after the two earlier nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Judging from the latest signs, experts project it would take around three months before a test can be conducted. The magnitude of North Korea's first nuclear test was 0.8 kt (1 kt equals 1,000 tons of TNT), while the strength of the second test was 4-5 kt. The magnitude of the atomic bomb that fell on Hiroshima in 1945 was 15 kt. The relative ineffectiveness of the devices tested could have been due to technical problems or a limited amount of plutonium. But now that may have changed and North Korea may even be in a position to use highly enriched uranium instead of plutonium. The North knows that the Punggye-ri area, where the test site is located, is under intense satellite surveillance and could be intent on drawing the attention of South Korean and U.S. authorities. That is why Seoul and Washington believe the latest activity is a political gesture aimed at pushing them back to the six-party talks. But if North Korea does not get what it wants, it could actually conduct another nuclear test. [Test] [NK US policy] [Six Part Talks]
• Signs of Fresh N.Korean Nuke Test Fuel Speculation
  The U.S. is taking a close look at recent signs of activity at North Korea's nuclear test site following claims that the North is well on its way to developing nuclear warheads small enough to fit on a ballistic missile. There are fears that the North will conduct another test aimed at developing high-performance nuclear weapons as part of efforts to consolidate the succession of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's third son Jong-un and to become a "powerful and prosperous nation" by 2012. The U.S. government also suspects that ostensible test preparations are aimed at pressuring it to resume the six-party nuclear talks. A senior diplomatic source in Washington said, "There is likelihood that the North is deliberately making a show of brisk activity in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province to give the impression that it could conduct another nuclear test if the U.S. won't engage in talks within about three months." [Test] [NK US policy] [Six Party Talks]
• Third N. Korean nuclear test unlikely, Unification Minister reports
  “Chances of a third nuclear test in North Korea are low, but cannot be ruled out,” said South Korea’s Unification Minister Hyun In-taek Friday. Hyun denied the possibility of an imminent nuclear test in North Korea, which was raised by local conservative media during a parliamentary audit. A team of Chinese military officers will travel to North Korea on Saturday, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. Guo Boxiong, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, will lead the team on its visit at the invitation of North Korea. North Korea appears to be moving at full speed with its heir apparent Kim Jong-un’s hereditary power succession, including naming him to high military posts. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday in a report that North Korea is heading toward a “new chronic food crisis” due to floods, drought and suspension of international food aid in some areas.
  Three S. Koreans arrested for attempted defection to N. Korea Prosecutors said Friday they have arrested three suspects of trying to defect to North Korea. According to prosecutors, a medical doctor surnamed Shin and two others have been charged with attempting entry into the North via China, receiving help from an acquaintance in Sweden last February. The three returned to South Korea after failing to cross the border of North Korea. They met through a pro-North Korea on-line community and their reasons of defection were reportedly that they were “sick of [South] Korean society.”
  First joint N.Korea-S.Korea university to open next week The first university founded jointly by North Korea and South Korea is scheduled to open next week in Pyongyang, reported the Yonhap News Agency Friday, citing a school official. The project to build Pyongyang University of Science and Technology was launched in 2001 after the two countries’ governments approved a South Korean nonprofit organization to participate in it. The university’s stated aim is to promote reconciliation and prosperity among the Korean people, separated since the 1950-53 Korean War, and “help North Korea develop the necessary economic and intellectual infrastructure to function as a member of the international community.” [Human rights] [Double standards]
• US admiral warns against another NKorea nuke test
  By HYUNG-JIN KIM The Associated Press Friday, October 22, 2010; 5:49 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- If North Korea carries out a third nuclear test, it would seriously undermine international and regional security, the U.S. Pacific commander warned Friday. Adm. Robert Willard's comments were prompted by a South Korean newspaper report that said a U.S. spy satellite detected activity at the North's main nuclear test site and that a detonation could occur in three months. South Korean officials played down the report, saying the activity didn't seem unusual. Responding to questions about the report, Willard told reporters that North Korea's nuclear capabilities pose a grave threat to the region and that another atomic bomb test - which would be the country's third - would be a "very serious matter."
  Just before the second test, North Korea walked out of talks aimed at ending its nuclear program. [Test] [Inversion]
• Is N.Korea Preparing for Another Nuke Test?
  This image taken on Oct. 16, 2006 by South Korea's multipurpose satellite Arirang No. 2 shows Punggye-ri in North Hamgyong Province, believed to be the site of North Korea's nuclear tests. /Courtesy of Korea Aerospace Research Institute A U.S. reconnaissance satellite has detected signs of North Korea preparing for a nuclear test in North Hamgyong Province, where it had conducted two earlier tests in October 2006 and May 2009. [Test]
• NK renews pledge to rejoin suspended six-party talks
  North Korea on Saturday reaffirmed its willingness to rejoin suspended six-party talks on its nuclear programs. “There has been no change in our determination to join the six-party talks and to impliment Sept. 19 joint declaration to make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons,” a North Korean spokesman said, concerning the outcome of the visit by the North’s First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan to Beijing. He made the remark in answer to the question by a reporter from the North’s Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang.
• Iranian Missile Enhancements Appear in North Korea
  Oct 14, 2010 By David A. Fulghum davef@aviationweek.com, Robert Wall wall@aviationweek.com WASHINGTON, LONDON The North Korean military parade last weekend does more than give world exposure to the heir apparent to Pyongyang’s leadership. It also revealed a new road-mobile ballistic missile — a variant of the BM-25 Musudan with a projected range of 3,000-4,000 km. (1,900-2,500 mi.). Even more intriguing, North Korea’s weaponry is showing design characteristics associated with the Shahab 3, Iran’s most advanced missile. Such evidence is leading some international analysts to the conclusion that the ballistic missile development ties between the two countries are active and producing improvements in the arsenals of both. While it would seem doubtful that complete missiles or missile sections are being shipped — given the close scrutiny by the West of North Korea shipping — components and engineering data could move relatively easily by air and diplomatic pouch. [Missiles] [Iran] [Intelligence]
• North Korea’s Nuclear Exports: On What Terms?
  By Joshua Pollack A 38 North Special Report Summary: Senior U.S. government officials maintain that North Korea is willing to sell its nuclear technology anywhere in the world for money. While the evidence is ambiguous, a careful examination suggests that many past transfers were actually done not for profit but in exchange for components or materials that benefited Pyongyang’s own nuclear program. Barter appears to be an overlooked but important mode of exploiting nuclear black markets. [Nuclear weapons] [Terrorism] [Intelligence] [Double standards] [MISCOM]
• North pushing nuke talks
  Six-party envoy Kim Gye-gwan spotted arriving in Beijing October 14, 2010 After several days of cajoling its own masses to accept a young successor to its leader, North Korea is now reaching out to China to revive six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program. Kim Gye-gwan, the first vice minister of North Korea’s ministry of foreign affairs, was seen late Tuesday getting off a plane in Beijing, according to sources in the Chinese capital. It is Kim’s first visit to China since his recent promotion to first vice minister from vice minister of the foreign ministry last month before a party congress that made Kim Jong-il’s son, Jong-un, his designated successor. Kim Gye-gwan has been North Korea’s top negotiator for the six-party talks, which have been stalled since April 2009, and his unexpected trip to China is believed to be related to their revival. The first vice minister is expected to talk with top officials, including China’s six-party negotiator, Wu Dawei. Wu visited North Korea in August, and then made stops in South Korea, Japan and the U.S. to discuss resumption of the talks. North Korea has been saying it wants to resume the talks since Kim Jong-il’s surprise visit to China in August, when he urged Chinese President Hu Jintao to restart them. In April 2009, North Korea walked away from the talks, which are hosted by China and include South Korea, the U.S., Japan and Russia. North Korea conducted a nuclear test a month later. A revival of the negotiations has been unlikely since the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in March, which South Korea and the U.S. blame on Pyongyang. North Korea denies any involvement. South Korea has been adamant that inter-Korean relations must improve before talks can resume and asked for an apology for the Cheonan sinking. By Christine Kim [christine.kim@joongang.co.kr] [Six Party Talks] [SK NK policy] [Cheonan] [Pretext] [Overtures]
• A-bomb survivors outraged at Obama over subcritical nuclear test
  Victims of atomic bombings expressed their disappointment at U.S. President Barack Obama after his administration carried out its first subcritical nuclear test last month. "In a word, we feel betrayed. We strongly object to any kind of nuclear testing by any government for any cause, and it was unacceptable," said Sunao Tsuboi, 85, chairman of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations. Haruko Moritaki, 71, co-director of the Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA), also criticized Obama, saying, "It was a sign that the U.S. government is poised to maintain its nuclear development and capability while advocating a world without nuclear weapons. Such a contradiction is unforgivable. Furthermore, his approach can give countries like India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea an excuse to hold onto their nuclear arsenals." [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• Should Japan And South Korea Declare a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone?
  September, 2010 The Status Quo Isn’t Working: A Nuke-Free Zone Is Needed Now By Peter Hayes
  One thing is clear about past attempts to denuclearize North Korea: They have been an abysmal failure. They have not afforded Pyongyang the sense of security it needs to take real steps to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. The idea of a South Korea-Japan nuclear weapon-free zone provides a fresh approach that might just work. A South Korea-Japan Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone is an attractive regional security concept compared with either the status quo or a future for Northeast Asia without such a zone. It should be in force by 2012. Why now? First, North Korea is developing more and better nuclear weapons as fast as possible. It can forge nuclear alliances in ways that cannot be easily stopped. Urgency is needed to slow, freeze and reverse this process. Reaffirming the American commitment to provide extended nuclear deterrence to the region did not deter North Korea from continuing to arm and test nuclear weapons. If anything, these nuclear threats, especially those in the April 2010 US Nuclear Posture Review, made the situation worse. Second, the six-party talks are moribund. A new framework is needed to manage the insecurity created by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and the risk of nuclear war in Korea. Third, the White House is comfortable with containment, at least until it fails catastrophically. Nothing indicates that US President Barack Obama will change his policy of isolating, shaming and squeezing North Korea. This myopic policy enables the North to continue a “nuclear succession” in which Kim Jong-il bequeaths a nuclear-armed nation to a new generation of leaders. [NWFZ] [Paradigm] [Cheonan]
• US often weighed North Korea `nuke option'
  By CHARLES J. HANLEY and RANDY HERSCHAFT The Associated Press Sunday, October 10, 2010; 12:05 AM NEW YORK -- From the 1950s Pentagon to today's Obama administration, the United States has repeatedly pondered, planned and threatened use of nuclear weapons against North Korea, according to declassified and other U.S. government documents released in this 60th-anniversary year of the Korean War. Air Force bombers flew nuclear rehearsal runs over North Korea's capital during the war. The U.S. military services later vied for the lead role in any "atomic delivery" over North Korea. In the late 1960s, nuclear-armed U.S. warplanes stood by in South Korea on 15-minute alert to strike the north. [US NK policy] [Nuclear weapons]
• North Korea tries nuclear talks ploy again
  Saturday, October 9, 2010 THOUGH IT promised "engagement" with rogue states, the Obama administration has so far held North Korea at arm's length. Its "strategic patience" strategy has been aimed at breaking Pyongyang's longstanding routine of ramping up its nuclear weapons program, extracting bribes in exchange for promises to curtail it -- and then repeating the cycle. The administration's position, and that of South Korea and Japan, is that the regime of Kim Jong Il should take steps to prove its seriousness about denuclearization before negotiations are renewed. Evidently, the approach isn't yet working. [US NK policy] [Strategic incoherence] [Sequencing]
• The Cooling Tower
  By Jeffrey Lewis Commercial satellite image from DigitalGlobe from September 29, 2010, showing new activity at the site of the destroyed cooling tower at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear site. Heavy machinery tracks, construction or excavation equipment and new buildings can be seen at the site. (Photo: ISIS, Sept. 29, 2010) This past week, the Institute for Science and International Security released a commercial satellite image showing heavy machinery tracks as well as trucks and heavy construction equipment at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear complex, near the area where the cooling tower for North Korea’s nuclear reactor once stood. It is not clear what North Korea is doing. Is North Korea attempting to reconstruct the cooling tower? Perhaps. On the other hand, much of the equipment appears related to excavation, which would seem to suggest some other activity. What is clear is the political symbolism of the site itself. The Six Party Process, at least as we knew it, is dead and buried. The trucks and other vehicles are driving over its grave. [Inversion] [US NK policy] [Bilateral] [Dissension]
• North Korea 'resumes building at nuclear reactor site'
  New construction is under way at North Korea's main nuclear reactor, near the site of a cooling tower destroyed in 2008, a private US research institute has said, citing a satellite photo. Published: 2:20PM BST 01 Oct 2010 A satellite image of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor Photo: REUTERS Anti-North Korean activists burn portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his son Kim Jong-un at a protest in Seoul Photo: REUTERS The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said on its website that tracks made by heavy machinery and construction or excavation equipment were visible in the photo. ISIS said there appeared to be the ongoing construction of two small buildings next to the site of the cooling tower at Yongbyon – which North Korea blew up in June 2008 in front of foreign media to dramatise its commitment to nuclear disarmament.
• N. Korea pressing forward on nuclear program, report says
  By John Pomfret Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, October 7, 2010; 9:32 PM North Korea appears to be moving forward with a program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, a development that would enhance its ability to produce bombs and sell its nuclear weapons technology abroad, according to a report to be released Friday. The report, "Taking Stock: North Korea's Uranium Enrichment Program" by the Institute for Science and International Security, comes as a senior South Korean official warned that North Korea's nuclear program is "evolving even now at a very fast pace." The official, Kim Tae-hyo, deputy national security adviser to President Lee Myung-bak, told the South Korean JoongAng Daily on Thursday that "North Korea is currently operating all its nuclear programs, including highly-enriched uranium processing," adding that the danger from the North's nuclear program is now at an "alarming" level. [HEU] [Media]
• Taking Stock: North Korea’s Uranium Enrichment Program
  David Albright and Paul Brannan October 8, 2010 North Korea’s centrifuge program poses both a horizontal and a vertical proliferation threat. It is an avenue for North Korea to increase the number and sophistication of its nuclear weapons and for it to proliferate to others who seek to build their own centrifuge programs. As a result, the priority is finding ways to either stop the program or to delay its progress through a combination of negotiations and sanctions. Procurement data obtained by governments and information from Pakistan, establish that North Korea is developing centrifuges. However, determining the centrifuge program’s status and the locations of its centrifuge facilities is difficult. Known procurements for North Korea’s centrifuge program do not show whether North Korea is able to produce significant amounts of highly enriched uranium. Yet the data support that North Korea has moved beyond laboratory-scale work and has the capability to build, at the very least, a pilot-scale gas centrifuge plant. However, the procurement data do not contain consistent numbers of procured items that would indicate the construction of a 3,000 centrifuge plant, large enough to produce enough weapon-grade uranium for about two nuclear weapons per year. [HEU] [Intelligence] [MISCOM]
• North Korean Uranium Enrichment Progresses, Analysts Say
  Friday, Oct. 8, 2010 North Korea seems to be making progress in its military uranium enrichment program, which would give the nation another pathway to building nuclear weapons and a valuable technology to sell on the black market, a U.S. think tank said in a report today (see GSN, Oct. 7). [HEU] [Thinktank] [MISCOM] [Double standards] [Proliferation]
• A Northeast Asian Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Is Unrealistic
  By Masashi Nishihara North Korea sees nuclear weapons as a vital tool to press the international community into supplying it with economic aid, to intimidate South Korea into treating it gently and to give it bargaining power with China. So the idea of a nuclear weapon-free zone aimed at bringing North Korea into the fold is interesting but ultimately unrealistic. Masashi Nishihara is President of the Research Institute for Peace and Security in Japan. [NFZ] [NK US policy] [Inversion]
• Japan to probe claims it sought nuclear arms in 1960s
  Posted: Mon Oct 04 2010, 17:11 hrs Japan is to investigate a report that it considered arming itself with nuclear weapons in the late 1960s despite its pacifist vow to shun them, a senior government official said on Monday. Public broadcaster NHK reported that Japan secretly considered going nuclear and sought advice from what was then West Germany in meetings with foreign ministry officials in February 1969 in the Japanese resort of Hakone. The report cited confidential West German foreign ministry documents. [Japanese remilitarisation] [US Japan alliance] [Threat] [Nuclearisation] [Parallels]
• The race to build atomic power plants in the Middle East
  Oil and gas brought many of them vast riches, but it is to nuclear power that Middle Eastern states are turning their attention in the 21st Century. A growing number of countries across the region want to develop civilian nuclear programmes to meet rising power demand and cut carbon emissions. Chris Webb looks at their progress so far. The recent dates on which Middle Eastern nations announced nuclear programmes, moves possibly prompted by Iran’s commencement of large-scale uranium enriching in 2006, as well as the region’s mounting energy needs Chris Webb This September will see the world’s nuclear industry elite converge on the Egyptian capital of Cairo, for the ‘Nuclear Power, Middle East and North Africa 2010’ event. It is a fitting venue, given Egypt’s avowed wish to press ahead at full speed with a nuclear power agenda aimed at supporting the country’s continuing economic development. Iran, Jordan and Turkey will be among others from the region discussing their future nuclear plans at the event. The prospect of widespread development of nuclear power in the Middle East, with its political hotspots, is not to everyone’s liking. There is a palpable air of ambivalence in some quarters, fuelled on the one hand by a desire to sell nuclear technology to cash-rich nations and on the other by fears of sinister spin-offs, notably the proliferation of fissile materials for use in developing nuclear weapons. [Nuclear energy] [Double standards]
• North Korea to strengthen nuclear deterrent
  North Korea vowed on Wednesday to strengthen its nuclear forces due to the threat posed by the United States. "As long as U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers sail in the seas around our country, our nuclear deterrent can never be abandoned, but should be strengthened further," North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon told the UN General Assembly. [Conditionality] [Media]

• Implementing A Japanese-Korean Nuclear Weapon Free Zone: Precedents, Legal Forms, Governance, Scope And Domain, Verification And Compliance, And Regional Benefits
  By Michael Hamel-Green September 28th, 2010 This paper was delivered at the Australia-Korea Strategic Futures Workshop, funded by the Australia-Korea Foundation, and is part of the Nautilus Institute’s Korea-Japan Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Initiative. This initiative is working to create a nuclear weapon free zone in Korea and Japan that will devalue North Korea’s nuclear weapons and increase pressure on the DPRK to disarm, deepen the non-nuclear commitments in Japan and Korea, and lay the foundations for a comprehensive security mechanism and long-term regional security institution. Michael Hamel-Green, Dean of and Professor in the Faculty of Arts, Education and Human Development, Victoria University, writes, “The time is now ripe for the leaderships in Korea and Japan to show the same kind of vision that Brazilian and Argentina leaders showed in the early 1990s in averting a nuclear arms race that would have undermined their economic development at the same time as risking future nuclear conflict… we now have a new window of opportunity for denuclearization of Northeast Asia despite the current crisis in relations between the two Koreas.” [NWFZ]
• China-Pakistan reactor deal to open fresh US rift
  By Geoff Dyer and Farhan Bokhari Published: September 23 2010 17:27 | Last updated: September 23 2010 17:27 A new potential dispute between the US and China is opening up as Beijing goes public with its plans to export two more nuclear reactors to Pakistan, in a deal that will raise ­questions about controls on nuclear technology. Chinese officials have admitted privately since earlier this year that they planned to go ahead with the long-mooted plan to sell Pakistan two more nuclear reactors, in addition to the one reactor it has already built and a second under construction [Nuclear energy] [Double standards] [China confrontation]
• India ready to export reactors
  23 September 2010 Overseas vendors may be keen to sell India their reactor technology, but the country is ready to export its own pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs). In India's statement to the 54th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Indian Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerjee said that Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) is "ready to offer Indian PHWRs of 220 MWe or 540 MWe for export." Furthermore, he said, Indian industry is also "on the way" to becoming a competitive supplier of special steels, large size forgings, control instruments, software and other nuclear components and services on the global market. [Nuclear energy] [Double standards] [Nuclear deal]
• Political Prospects for a NWFZ in Northeast Asia
  By Leon V. Sigal September 21st, 2010 This paper was delivered at the Australia-Korea Strategic Futures Workshop, funded by the Australia-Korea Foundation, and is part of the Nautilus Institute’s Korea-Japan Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Initiative. This initiative is working to create a nuclear weapon free zone in Korea and Japan that will devalue North Korea’s nuclear weapons and increase pressure on the DPRK to disarm, deepen the non-nuclear commitments in Japan and Korea, and lay the foundations for a comprehensive security mechanism and long-term regional security institution. A background paper on the Korea-Japan Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Initiative in available in English: http://www.nautilus.org/initiatives/korea-japan-nwfz/KJNWFZ%20Concept%20Paper%20May6-2010.pdf I. Introduction Leon V. Sigal, Director, Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council, writes, “While broaching the subject of a NWFZ runs political risks, conventional deterrence continues to operate on the Korean Peninsula. The South has long had conventional forces capable of defeating the North, with or without U.S. troops, and the North has long held Seoul hostage to its forward-deployed artillery. The North’s nuclear weapons affect the balance of power on the Korean Peninsula insofar as they could put U.S. forces and bases in Japan at risk.” [Nuclear weapons] [NZFZ] [US NK policy] [NK US policy]
• Leaky bucket of Six-Party Talks best option
  Source: Global Times [22:38 September 15 2010] Comments By Liu Jiangyong Although negotiations on the resumption of the Six-Party Talks have been put on the diplomatic agenda of some related countries, it is still too early to predict when the talks will restart. Confronted with severe floods, North Korea has set economic development and livelihood recovery as the most important policy objectives at the beginning of this year. The military-first politics it usually sticks to have been reprioritized as a result.
  North Korea is taking the moment as a vital chance to change its development pattern. To facilitate the national development transition, it direly needs an easy external environment. And returning to the Six-Party Talks is in accordance with its interests.
  It is not in the US interests if an armed conflict breaks out in the peninsula. The US is keen to get Northeast Asia under control, but it is unwilling to get involved in a regional war.
  The US containment of China through its military power and alliances in this region will intensify the geopolitical strategic conflicts between the two. [China confrontation] [Development strategy] [Economic reforms]
• Six-Party Talks choked by mismatched aims
  Source: Global Times [22:21 September 01 2010] Comments By Ding Gang On August 27, former US President Jimmy Carter's spokesman suddenly announced that due to Carter's mediation, North Korea had agreed to release US citizen Aijalon Gomez, held prisoner in the country for seven months. Carter's visit came and went quickly and has not prompted much international response.
• Korea-Japan Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (KJNWFZ) Concept Paper
  Special Report: September 15th, 2010 By the Nautilus Institute[1] CONTENTS: I. Summary Introduction II. Concept Paper III. Citations IV. Nautilus invites your responses This concept paper is also available in Korean and Japanese. I. SUMMARY INTRODUCTION A Korea-Japan [2] Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (hereafter KJNWFZ) is a new concept. Once realized, it could help resolve a number of linked and intractable security issues in Northeast Asia at the same time. This includes the need to respond to North Korea’s nuclear breakout without undermining the Global Abolition policy announced by President Obama; the need for Japan and Korea to deepen their non-nuclear commitments to more deeply ingrained “forever” status without hedging; and the need for Japan-Korean cooperation to lay the foundations for a comprehensive security mechanism and long-term regional security institution, including through cooperative nuclear fuel cycle and space development activities. Section 1 of this paper outlines the core concept of a nuclear weapon free zone (NWFZ), reviews past proposals for Northeast Asia NWFZs, and delineates the minimal and region specific issues that a KJNWFZ must address. Section 2 outlines in more detail the Nautilus KJNWFZ Initiative, lists the possible costs, benefits, and risks posed by a KJNWFZ, and describes the research needed to ascertain the feasibility and desirability of a KJNWFZ. Section 3 explains why a KJNWFZ is timely and apt given the failure to stop North Korean nuclear armament and follow-on effects for US alliances and regional security. [Nuclear weapons]
• NAM Displeased with Amano's Equivocal Language on Iran
  TEHRAN (FNA)- The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in a statement on Wednesday criticized the language used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General, Yukio Amano, in his recent report on Iran, and renewed its strong support for Tehran's nuclear activities.
  "NAM notes with concern, the possible implications of the continued departure from standard verification language in the summary of the report of the Director General," the statement said. The statement was read during the IAEA Board of Governors meeting by Egyptian ambassador on behalf of over 100 NAM member states. The full text of the NAM statement is as follows: Implementation of the NPI safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mr. Chairperson, 1. The Vienna Chapter of the Non-Aligned Movement wishes to thank the Director General, Mr. Yukiya Amano, for his report on the Implementation of the NPT safeguards agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran as contained in document Gov/2010/46. 2. Before expressing our comments on the Director General's Report, NAM would like to reiterate its principled positions on the matter: a. NAM reaffirms the basic and inalienable right of all states to the development, research, production and use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, without any discrimination and in conformity with their respective legal obligations. Therefore, nothing should be interpreted in a way as inhibiting or restricting the right of states to develop atomic energy for peaceful purposes. States' choices and decisions, including those of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear technology and its fuel cycle policies must be respected. [Nuclear energy] [Double standards] [Iran] [IAEA] [UNUS]
• China, US pledge to advance six-party talks
  Source: Xinhua [09:07 September 04 2010] Comments Senior Chinese and US diplomats have agreed to work together to advance the stalled six-party talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula (sic). Wu Dawei, China's special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs, held separate meetings during a visit here between Aug. 31 and Sept. 3 with US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, special envoy for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Stephen Bosworth, Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and the White House chief adviser on Asia Jeff Bader. Both sides agreed to play a constructive role in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. [Six Party Talks] [Spin]
• Frustration grows over Russian rocket stalemate
  By Kim Tong-hyung South Korea looks to rely on Russian technology to jumpstart its efforts to involve in the Asian space race, but engineers and officials here seem increasingly frustrated over being at the mercy of a capricious business partner. The country has bungled on its first two attempts to launch as satellite from the Naro spaceport in South Jeolla Province and claims that Russia’s Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center bound by contract to provide a third attempt. However, the Russians, who have clearly approached the Korean rocket project as an experiment on course of developing their next-generation Angara rockets, are reluctant to build any more Korea Space Launch Vehicles 1s (KSLV-1s). [Satellite] [KSLV] [Russia]
• U.S. official says N. Korean nuclear trade threatens global security
  By Yoo Jee-ho SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's illicit trading of nuclear material and technology with other countries (sic) presents a major concern for global nuclear security and it warrants strengthening of nuclear detection and forensics, a visiting senior U.S. official said Monday. Laura Holgate, senior director for weapons of mass destruction terrorism and threat reduction at the National Security Council in Washington, said there are "established patterns of (nuclear) trade" involving North Korea and other states. [Proliferation] [Double standards]
• U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS N. KOREAN NUCLEAR TRADE THREATENS GLOBAL SECURITY
  Yonhap (Yoo Jee-ho, Seoul, 2010/08/30) reported that Laura Holgate, senior director for weapons of mass destruction terrorism and threat reduction at the National Security Council in Washington, said Monday illicit trading of nuclear material and technology with other countries presents a major concern for global nuclear security. "In regards to the nuclear security issue, in particular nuclear material security, obviously, one of the big concerns is that North Korea sells a lot of nuclear technology illegally to people who shouldn't have it," Holgate said at a security forum in Seoul. "There's a very strong concern that there might be some kind of illicit sale of nuclear material that we know North Korea has, to people who might do bad things with it." "That's one of the important things about beefing up ... nuclear detection and nuclear forensics. Problems have come from that," she said. "I think there are pieces of the global puzzle that apply there, given that they do have material. It's very concerning." [Proliferation] [Double standards] [Evidence] [Intelligence]
• U.S. Official Says N. Korean Nuclear Trade Threatens Global Security
  A visiting senior U.S. official says North Korea's illicit nuclear material and technology trade threatens global security and warrants strengthening nuclear detection. Speaking at the Nuclear Security Workshop in Seoul, U.S. National Security Council Senior Director Laura Holgate said there are established patterns of nuclear trade involving Pyongyang and other states. She named Burma, Syria, and al-Qaida as potential recipients of North Korean nuclear material, adding it would be dangerous if plutonium or highly enriched uranium found its way there [Proliferation] [Double standards]
• Seoul Should Be Open to the Resumption of 6-Party Talks
  Chinese President Hu Jintao went all the way to Changchun in China's northeastern province of Jilin on Friday to meet with visiting North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The fact that the Chinese leader traveled 970 km from Beijing to a remote provincial town for the summit appears to demonstrate the Chinese government's will to boost the North Korean leader's prestige. And North Korea and China appear to share a common political objective judging by the fact that Kim snubbed Jimmy Carter on the day the former U.S. president set foot on Pyongyang at North Korea's behest and went to China instead. [China NK] [Six Party Talks] [Sidelined]
• Seoul Won't Insist on Cheonan Apology Before 6-Party Talks
  The government has suggested to China that the resumption of six-party talks about North Korea's nuclear program could proceed alongside discussions about the North's sinking of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan, it emerged Friday. Seoul had so far dug in its heels over the resumption of the talks unless the North apologized for the attack. But some government officials expressed worries that Seoul could not stall the six-party talks indefinitely if Pyongyang and Beijing agree to give priority to them. Foreign Ministry officials last Friday briefed Wu Dawei, the visiting Chinese chief nuclear negotiator, on Seoul's new position. "Realistically, there is zero possibility of the North admitting its involvement in the Cheonan sinking and apologizing for it," a government official said. "But at the same time we can't just let it pass, which is what the North wants." [Six Party Talks] [Cheonan]
• Kim Jong-il hopes for early resumption of six-party talks on N.Korea nuclear issue
  17:40 30/08/2010© RIA Novosti. Vladimir Rodionov North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has expressed hope for an early resumption of the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear program during talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao in China, Xinhua said on Monday. The North Korean leader arrived in China early on Thursday, but there has been no official confirmation of the visit from either China or North Korea, according to media reports. Hu and Kim held talks in Changchun, the capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, from August 26 to 30, Xinhua said. Last week, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Kim's presumed visit was an "apparent bid to win Beijing's approval for North Korea's expected power succession to the leader's youngest son, Jong-un, in the coming years." Kim reportedly told his Chinese counterpart that the DPRK's stance on the situation in the region remains unchanged, and the country "is not willing to see tensions on the peninsula," Xinhua reported.

• NK ok with “informal” meeting to kick off nuke talks
  North Korea agreed to the Chinese proposal to hold an informal meeting with its five dialogue partners at the long-stalled nuclear talks before the resumption of a formal round, Yonhap news agency said Saturday citing a Japanese newspaper. Pyongyang made the commitment during a trip by China's top nuclear envoy Wu Dawei there earlier this week, Wu was quoted as telling a group of Japanese opposition lawmakers traveling to Beijing, it said. [Six Party Talks]
• The unmaking of the atomic bomb
  By George Perkovich Sunday, August 22, 2010 THE TWILIGHT OF THE BOMBS Recent Challenges, New Dangers, and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons By Richard Rhodes Knopf. 366 pp. $27.95
  Once again, foreign policy circles are speculating that Israel will bomb Iran to stop, or at least slow, its march toward nuclear weapons. The political history of nuclear weapons is repeating itself: One country gets the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, feels smug and secure for a while, then tries desperately to keep its adversaries from joining the club. That scenario predominated through the end of the 20th century. Israel bombed Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor in 1981. The United States secretly considered attacking the Soviet Union and China before those nations could deploy the bomb. Indian leaders contemplated bombing Pakistan's nuclear facilities when Pakistan was about at the stage Iran has reached now. But bombing provides no lasting solution. As the nuclear threat shifts to terrorists and deranged dictatorships (sic) , a new phase in nuclear history may be emerging: a recognition by some leaders in nuclear-armed states that the world would be more secure if these weapons were eliminated.
  South Korea wanted the United States to remove tactical nuclear weapons from its territory, but Washington did not want to look weak to North Korea by doing so. National security adviser Brent Scowcroft took a wide-angle view of the question and proposed to President George H.W. Bush that the United States unilaterally remove all of its tactical nuclear weapons from surface ships and land forces worldwide [Nuclear weapons] [US global strategy]
• Nuclear-Weapon Simulator Runs Test
  Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010 A nuclear-weapon research tool at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico produced five high-quality images in support of U.S. stockpile stewardship efforts, the National Nuclear Security Administration announced yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 7, 2009). The radiographs, produced using two electron accelerators at the laboratory's Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrotest Facility, focused on a "surrogate-material implosion system," according to an agency press release. The facility creates multiple images of detonating nuclear-weapon parts for hydrodynamic assessments of the components. The test took place after the completion of various upgrades and other work at the site. “The results of this successful DARHT test demonstrate NNSA’s commitment to ensuring we have top-quality tools and first-rate people required to ensure the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear weapons stockpile without testing,” NNSA Deputy Administrator Don Cook said in a statement. “The recent technical upgrades and facility maintenance at DARHT were important investments to NNSA’s infrastructure to help solve tough national challenges.” The facility is slated in fiscal 2010 to conduct two additional hydrodynamic tests, which examine how solid substances behave like liquids in extreme environments. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30 (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, Aug. 10). [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• Nuclear Power and Spent Fuel in East Asia: Balancing Energy, Politics and Nonproliferation
  By Miles Pomper, Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, Stephanie Lieggi, and Lawrence Scheinman August 3rd, 2010 Miles Pomper, Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, Stephanie Lieggi, and Lawrence Scheinman, write, “a new regional forum for more consistently and openly discussing possible options for dealing with regional spent fuel stockpiles needs to be established. Many regional players are facing similar back end challenges and some of their nuclear authorities are proposing similar solutions; sharing of best practices and lessons learned would be beneficial. Numerous smaller Asian economies are contemplating nuclear power development (such as Vietnam and Indonesia), yet there is little regional discussion or coordination of such issues.” [Nuclear energy]
• Security Without Nuclear Deterrence
  Commander Robert Green, Royal Navy (Ret’d)
  Over twenty years after the Cold War ended, some 23,000 nuclear weapons remain. The nuclear weapon states cite nuclear deterrence doctrine as the final, indispensable justification for maintaining their nuclear arsenals. This drives the spread of nuclear weapons to paranoid regimes and extremists who are least likely to be deterred (sic). The fallacies of nuclear deterrence must therefore be exposed and alternatives offered if there is to be any serious prospect of eliminating nuclear weapons. [Nuclear weapons]
• Reviews of Security Without Nuclear Deterrence
  
• White House Is Rethinking Nuclear Policy
  By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER
  Published: February 28, 2010 WASHINGTON — As President Obama begins making final decisions on a broad new nuclear strategy for the United States, senior aides say he will permanently reduce America’s arsenal by thousands of weapons. But the administration has rejected proposals that the United States declare it would never be the first to use nuclear weapons, aides said.
  Mr. Obama’s recently published Quadrennial Defense Review also includes support for a new class of non-nuclear weapons, called “Prompt Global Strike,” that could be fired from the United States and hit a target anywhere in less than an hour. The idea, officials say, would be to give the president a non-nuclear option for, say, a large strike on the leadership of Al Qaeda in the mountains of Pakistan, or a pre-emptive attack on an impending missile launch from North Korea. But under Mr. Obama’s strategy, the missiles would be based at new sites around the United States that might even be open to inspection, so that Russia and China would know that a missile launched from those sites was not nuclear — to avoid having them place their own nuclear forces on high alert. [PGS] [Nuclear weapons] [US military]
• U.S.-Vietnam Atomic Deal Said to Permit Uranium Enrichment
  Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 The United States is in serious discussions with Vietnam on a civilian atomic cooperation deal that would give the Asian state uranium enrichment rights -- a possibility some warn could negatively impact the Obama administration's nuclear nonproliferation efforts in other parts of the globe, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday (see GSN, June 15). (Aug. 5) - Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, left, poses with U.S. President Barack Obama at the Global Nuclear Security Summit in Washington last April. Some experts have criticized the Obama administration for negotiating a civilian nuclear trade pact with Vietnam that could give uranium enrichment rights to the Asian nation (Jewel Samad/Getty Images). Informed U.S. officials say State Department negotiators have offered a comprehensive nuclear collaboration pact to Hanoi and have begun appraising congressional foreign affairs panels on progress in the trade talks. A deal would give Hanoi access to U.S. nuclear material and equipment. Some lawmakers in Washington and nonproliferation specialists say the pact would permit Vietnam to enrich uranium on its own territory for reactor fuel -- something Washington has rejected in nuclear trade pact discussions with nations such as Jordan. [Proliferation] [Double standards] [US global policy]

• U.S. Wary of South Korea’s Plan to Reuse Nuclear Fuel
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: July 13, 2010 SEOUL, South Korea — Overshadowed by the continuing tension over North Korea’s nuclear program, another nuclear dispute is emerging on the Korean Peninsula — this one between the United States and South Korea. South Korea, which has no oil reserves, derives 40 percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors and is running out of space to store the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. So the South Korean government wants to reprocess the used material — both to provide fuel for its next generation of fast-breeder reactors and to reduce its stored waste. But South Korea is prohibited from such activities under a 1974 agreement with the United States. The plutonium that results from reprocessing spent fuel can power nuclear reactors — which South Korea insists is its only goal — but can also be used to make atomic bombs, as North Korea has done. [Imperialism] [US dominance] [Double standards][Nuclear energy]
• North Korea's Choice: Bombs over Electricity
  Siegfried S. Hecker, Sean C. Lee, and Chaim Braun Volume: 40, Number: 2 - Jun 2010 Although North Korea has the bomb, it has no nuclear arsenal to speak of and no nuclear-generated electricity. Nuclear power and nuclear weapons have a common technological foundation. In pursuit of a civilian fuel cycle—making fuel, building reactors to burn the fuel, and dealing with nuclear waste, which might include extracting some valuable by-products of spent reactor fuel—a nation can develop the capability of producing the material necessary for a bomb, either highly enriched uranium or plutonium. Under civilian cover, North Korea developed a fuel cycle ideally suited to harboring a latent capability for weapons production. In fact, although the country now has the bomb, it does not have much of a nuclear arsenal or any nuclear-generated electricity (Hecker, 2010). In the 1970s, South Korea was also interested in the bomb, but it gave up those aspirations and, with international assistance, turned its nuclear focus to civilian energy. Today the South Korean nuclear power industry provides nearly 40 percent of the country’s electricity, and South Korea is in a position to become a major international exporter of nuclear power plants. The factors that led North Korea to build the bomb and those that led South Korea to forsake it can be instructive for the United States in formulating a policy to restrain Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions, although the political situation there is dramatically different. [Agency] [Context]
• PNND Member Julia Gillard Sworn in as Australian Prime Minister
  PNND Members in leadership positions worldwide The Global Security Institute, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, the Middle Powers Initiative and the Bipartisan Security Group extend their most heartfelt congratulations to PNND Member Julia Gillard for her assumption as Prime Minister of Australia. [Disarmament]
• International Panel Calls for New Nuclear Organization
  Tuesday, July 6, 2010 A new international organization should be established to evaluate nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament efforts by various countries, the International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament said at its last meeting yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 15, 2009). Nations would be graded annually on their activities in those sectors, the group said. "The idea would be for a very strong and rigorous analysis done (...) to really keep the pressure up on governments," Deutsche Presse-Agentur quoted former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, co-chairman of the panel, as saying (Deutsche Presse-Agentur/Earth Times, July 6). "As long as there is a country [that] possesses nuclear weapons, other countries will also want to have [them]," the Xinhua News Agency quoted Evans as saying (Xinhua News Agency, July 6). [Nuclear weapons] [Proliferation]
• Pakistani, U.S. Spies Seen Sparring on Nuclear Matters
  Tuesday, July 6, 2010 The CIA has attempted on multiple occasions to gather information on Pakistan's nuclear program by infiltrating the nation's intelligence service, despite Washington's close counterterrorism alliance with Islamabad, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, June 18). (Jul. 6) - Pakistani troops patrol near a militant stronghold in their country's tribal region last March. The CIA and Pakistan's intelligence agency have spied on one another over nuclear issues, according to former U.S. officials (A. Majeed/Getty Images). Pakistan, in turn, has conducted counterintelligence operations against the United States in an effort to determine the CIA's insight into the Asian state's nuclear work. [Espionage] [Intelligence]
• Outgoing UN Nuclear Inspector Pushed Dubious Iran Nuclear Weapons Intel
  by Gareth Porter, July 03, 2010 Email This | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Olli Heinonen, the Finnish nuclear engineer who resigned Thursday after five years as deputy director for safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was the driving force in turning that agency into a mechanism to support U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran. Heinonen was instrumental in making a collection of intelligence documents showing a purported Iranian nuclear weapons research program the central focus of the IAEA’s work on Iran. The result was to shift opinion among Western publics to the view that Iran had been pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program But his embrace of the intelligence documents provoked a fierce political struggle within the Secretariat of the IAEA, because other officials believed the documents were fraudulent. [Disinformation] [Sanctions]

• 5 myths about getting rid of the bomb
  By Barry Blechman and Alex Bollfrass Sunday, June 27, 2010 It's everyone's nightmare scenario: After a 65-year hiatus, nuclear bombs are again used as weapons. But despite the evident dangers posed by their existence, nine nations cling to nukes, and a few others, such as Iran, seem to want them. The existing nuclear powers resist disarmament because they believe, or claim to believe, in a number of myths about how easy bombs are for rogue regimes to get -- and how useful they are once in hand. [Disarmament]
• Abnormal radiation detected near Korean border
  By HYUNG-JIN KIM The Associated Press Monday, June 21, 2010; 2:36 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- Abnormal radiation was detected near the inter-Korean border days after North Korea claimed last month to have achieved a nuclear technology breakthrough, South Korea's Science Ministry said Monday. The ministry said it failed to find the cause of the radiation but ruled out a possible underground nuclear test by North Korea. It cited no evidence of a strong earthquake that must follow an atomic explosion.
• Radioactivity Detected After N.Korea Nuclear Fusion Claim
  Right after North Korea claimed a successful nuclear fusion test on May 12, the northernmost radiation detection station of the [South] Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety detected an eightfold increase in the radioactive substance xenon, it emerged Sunday. Since nuclear fusion is the core process in hydrogen bombs, there is speculation that the North actually ran a small-scale nuclear test to develop the technology at the time. On May 14, two days after the North's announcement, air analysis of KINS's radiation detection station in Geojin, Gangwon Province showed about eight times as much xenon as in ordinary times, a government official said. "Authorities concerned have concentrated on analyzing this," he added.
• China counters US
  Published: June 19, 2010 THE US government and media has been incessantly targeting Pakistan’s nuclear programme and the latest salvo fired from the US Administration was against the civil nuclear agreement between Pakistan and China for two power reactors which will be subject as usual to IAEA safeguards. Given the US nuclear deal with India which led to all manner of concessions being given to India in terms of a special safeguard agreement with the IAEA and a country-specific exception to Nuclear Suppliers’ Group’s (NSG) rules being given to India, it is absurd for the US to target the present Pakistan-China civil nuclear agreement. Pakistan is not even demanding a similar special safeguards agreement with the IAEA - which it should do - on the model of the IAEA-India safeguards agreement which contains all manner of loopholes to allow India an easy exit from these safeguards whenever it chooses. Nevertheless the US has typically decided to target the new Pakistan-China nuclear agreement as part of its unrelenting campaign against nuclear Pakistan and has declared that this agreement requires the approval of the NSG. That is why the strong reaction by China in defence of the agreement is to be welcomed. As the Chinese Foreign Office Spokesperson categorically declared, the agreement was in line with China’s international obligations, was totally for peaceful purposes and was subject to IAEA “safeguards and supervisions”. China’s strong defence shows once again that China remains our foremost steadfast ally - in sharp contrast to the US which continues to undermine Pakistan on all fronts. [Nuclear deal] [Double standards] [China confrontation]
• Secretary Chu Testimony to Senate Armed Services Committee on New START Treaty
  THURSDAY, 17 JUNE 2010 13:29 PRESS RELEASE Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—June 17, 2010. Secretary Steven Chu testified today before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the New START Treaty. His prepared testimony is below: Chairman Levin, Ranking Member McCain, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, known as "New START." In Prague last April, President Obama outlined a comprehensive agenda for addressing nuclear dangers in the 21st century. He pledged to take concrete steps toward a world without nuclear weapons, while maintaining the safety, security, and effectiveness of our arsenal as long as nuclear weapons exist. The President has called for reducing the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and for building a new international framework for civil nuclear cooperation, and he has promised to lead an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years. Building on that commitment, the President's Nuclear Posture Review put preventing the spread of nuclear weapons to terrorists and to states that don't already possess them at the very top of our national security agenda. The danger of a nuclear weapon falling into the wrong hands is the greatest threat facing the American people [Proliferation] [Terrorism] [US global strategy]
• Myanmar denies allegations it is seeking nukes
  The Associated Press Saturday, June 19, 2010; 6:41 AM YANGON, Myanmar -- Myanmar has sent a letter to the U.N. nuclear agency insisting it has no current or future plan to develop a nuclear program in the isolated country's second denial this month after reports emerged it may be seeking an atomic weapon. Myanmar's military government has denied similar allegations in the past, but suspicions have mounted recently that the impoverished Southeast Asian nation has embarked on a nuclear program. Myanmar's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Win Tin, dismissed the allegations as "groundless and unfounded" in a letter sent Friday, according to a Saturday report in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper. The Foreign Ministry issued a denial on June 11.
• Nuclear Deterrence: Painting a Bull's Eye On the US
  by Peter Huessy June 16, 2010 at 5:00 am Will the US have a nuclear deterrent capable of defending America in 20 years? True, we may not purposely give it up as reaching global zero is certainly not yet on the horizon. But what if we fail to make the needed investments to sustain and modernize what is at heart central to America's security? That is the very question now facing Congress. What kind of nuclear deterrent will we have as we seek a safer world?
  In this day and age of terror masters and terrorists, of potential misunderstandings and uncertainty, a secure, protected and stable deterrent that includes 450 Minuteman and 12-14 strategic submarines and the requisite number of bombers remain America's best shield against many nuclear dangers. This was so in 1994; and in 2002. It is also the right thing in 2010. Deterrence remains a top security requirement -- especially tomorrow, as we glimpse only the outlines of an uncertain future. [Nuclear weapons] [US global strategy]
• Indo-US nexus fallout
  Published: June 16, 2010 GIVEN the US-India nuclear deal, with its latent military component, it was assumed that the Pakistan-China nuclear agreement, which is purely for civil nuclear power development and, as previously, subject to IAEA safeguards would not cause a hysterical reaction in the US. However, according to The Washington Post, the US has now decided to object to this deal for two civilian nuclear reactors. Citing US officials, the paper reported that the Sino-Pakistan deal would be discussed next week in New Zealand at the meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG). This is hypocrisy of the worst kind given how the US has itself signed a major nuclear deal with India - like Pakistan, a non signatory to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In fact, after contravening its own NPT obligations, the US pushed the IAEA into conceding to a special country-specific safeguards agreement for India’s civilian reactors (those India chooses to identify for these safeguards). It was on this point that Pakistan made a diplomatic gaffe by backtracking on its principled opposition to these safeguards in the IAEA and the story of how the pressure was applied through Washington was made public at the time. After getting India through the IAEA, the US then lobbied for country-specific concessions for India from the NSG despite Pakistan asking for criteria-based exceptions. As a result of the NSG’s concession to India, lucrative nuclear contracts are being signed by India and countries like France, Russia and the UK! [NPT] [Nuclear deal] [Double standards]
• Russians Deny Responsibility for Rocket Launch Failure
  Russian technicians say they are not responsible for the failure of Korea's first partly homegrown satellite-carrying rocket last week. Some Russian technicians left a day after the Naro or KLSV-1 blew up minutes after launch. They looked serious, according to Korean engineers, apparently because the press here blamed a malfunction of the rocket's first-stage engine for the failure. [KSLV]
• Korea's 2nd Rocket Launch Attempt Fails
  Korea again failed to launch a home grown satellite-carrying space rocket at its second attempt on Thursday. The KLSV-1 was launched at 5:01 p.m. from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province but exploded 137.19 seconds after blastoff, Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ahn Byong-man said. The rocket exploded at an altitude of about 70 km some 470 km south of Jeju Island, the ministry said. [KSLV]
• Japan Urged to Open Nuclear Trade With India
  Wednesday, June 9, 2010 France and the United States are encouraging Japan to establish a civilian nuclear trade pact with India that would enable Western firms to sell atomic technology containing Japanese components to the South Asian state, Reuters reported yesterday [Nuclear deal]
• S. Korea aborts space rocket launch
  June 09, 2010 NARO SPACE CENTER -- South Korea postponed the launch of its Naro-1 rocket due to problems in the rocket's fire extinguishing system, the government said on Wednesday. [KSLV]
• Glitch Casts Doubt on Space Rocket Launch
  The KSLV-1 rocket stands on the launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province on Monday. /Courtesy of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute The scheduled second launch attempt of Korea's space rocket Naro on Wednesday may have to be postponed after an unexpected glitch in the electrical system led to a five-hour delay in the rollout process. Engineers on Monday attempted to link the KSLV-1 rocket with the erector to raise it vertically for launch, but unstable electric signals after the rocket was attached to the pad's cable mast delayed them. The rocket was finally raised on the launch pad at around 8:55 p.m., five hours later than the scheduled time. [Satellite] [KSLV]
• Eight Nations Hold 7,540 Deployed Nukes, Report Finds
  Thursday, June 3, 2010 Eight nations at the beginning of 2010 held an estimated 7,540 operational nuclear weapons, a figure that is down somewhat from last year due largely to the withdrawal by Russia and the United States of fielded warheads, according to a yearly report released yesterday by a Sweden-based think tank (see GSN, Nov. 18, 2009). (Jun. 3) - Russian strategic bombers and fighter aircraft fly over Red Square in May 2009. Russia and seven other nuclear-armed states possess more than 7,500 deployed nuclear weapons, according to a report released this week (Dmitry Kostyukov/Getty Images). The five official nuclear powers -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- together with India, Pakistan and Israel have an estimated 22,500 nuclear weapons when counting armaments that are in storage, set for disassembly or not yet ready for deployment, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute stated in its annual yearbook. The five nuclear powers "appear determined to remain nuclear powers and are either modernizing or about to modernize their nuclear forces" the authors wrote. Additionally, "India and Pakistan are expanding their nuclear strike capabilities, while Israel appears to be waiting to see how the situation in Iran develops." North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests "but there is no public information to verify that it has operational nuclear weapons," the report says. The country is thought to possess enough processed plutonium to build seven warheads. Russia and the United States continue to possess the lion's share of nuclear weapons: an estimated 12,000 and 9,600 warheads, respectively. Washington holds 2,468 deployed strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, compared to Moscow's 4,630. [NPT] [Nuclear weapons]
• Footage of Naro Rocket Mission Shows Moment of Failure
  Korea's space agency has assembled a home-grown rocket with 10 days to go before a scheduled second launch after the first one failed to put a satellite into orbit. It also released new video footage containing crucial moments of the first mission and present preparations for the second launch, in an apparent effort to show that the lessons have been learned. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute unveiled the footage on Sunday. [Satellite] [KSLV]
• Next Launch Attempt for Korean Space Rocket on June 9
  Korea will attempt another launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, named Naro, on June 9 after the first ended in failure last year. Kim Young-sik of the Ministry of Education, Science and Education on Monday said, "We've set the date for the second launch of Naro on June 9. If it's delayed due to the weather, we'll set another date between June 9 and 19." [Satellite] [KSLV]

• UN experts say NKorea is exporting nuke technology
  By EDITH M. LEDERER The Associated Press Friday, May 28, 2010; 2:38 AM UNITED NATIONS -- North Korea is exporting nuclear and ballistic missile technology and using multiple intermediaries, shell companies and overseas criminal networks to circumvent U.N. sanctions, U.N. experts said in a report obtained by The Associated Press. The seven-member panel monitoring the implementation of sanctions against North Korea said its research indicates that Pyongyang is involved in banned nuclear and ballistic activities in Iran, Syria and Myanmar. It called for further study of these suspected activities and urged all countries to try to prevent them. The 47-page report, obtained late Thursday by AP, and a lengthy annex document sanctions violations reported by U.N. member states, including four cases involving arms exports and two seizures of luxury goods by Italy - two yachts and high-end recording and video equipment. The report also details the broad range of techniques that North Korea is using to try to evade sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council after its two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 [Sanctions] [Bizarre] [UNUS]
• Britain Reveals Size of Nuclear Stockpile
  Britain has announced for the first time the size of its nuclear arsenal, saying it has 225 warheads. Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament Wednesday that the time is right to re-examine Britain's policy on the use of nuclear weapons. Hague said he hopes his announcement will help build trust between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states, and contribute to efforts to reduce the number of nuclear weapons worldwide. Britain had earlier revealed it had 160 operational warheads, but Hague's comments are the first time the maximum size of the total stockpile was made public [Nuclear weapons]
• An Arsenal We Can All Live With
  By Gary Schaub Jr. and James Forsyth Jr. May 21, 2010 Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. THE Pentagon has now told the public, for the first time, precisely how many nuclear weapons the United States has in its arsenal: 5,113. That is exactly 4,802 more than we need. Last week, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before the Senate to advocate approval of the so-called New Start treaty, signed by President Obama and President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia last month. The treaty’s ceiling of 1,550 warheads deployed on 700 missiles and bombers will leave us with fewer warheads than at any time since John F. Kennedy was president. Yet the United States could further reduce its reliance on nuclear weapons without sacrificing security. Indeed, we have calculated that the country could address its conceivable national defense and military concerns with only 311 strategic nuclear weapons. (While we are civilian Air Force employees, we speak only for ourselves and not the Pentagon.) This may seem a trifling number compared with the arsenals built up in the cold war, but 311 warheads would provide the equivalent of 1,900 megatons of explosive power, or nine-and-a-half times the amount that Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara argued in 1965 could incapacitate the Soviet Union by destroying “one-quarter to one-third of its population and about two-thirds of its industrial capacity.” [Nuclear weapons] [US global strategy]
• Burma (sic), North Korea and the nuclear question
  May 18th, 2010 Author: Andrew Selth, Griffith University For the past ten years, Burma has been accused of trying to acquire a nuclear weapon. A number of developments during this period — notably Burma’s growing relationship with North Korea — have raised international concerns. Yet, to date, no hard evidence of such a plan has been produced.
  Of all Southeast Asian countries, Burma has the strongest strategic rationale for a nuclear weapons program. Since the abortive pro-democracy uprising in 1988, the military government has feared armed intervention by the US and its allies. The regime has also suffered from economic sanctions and other punitive measures. Burma’s generals envy North Korea’s ability to resist such pressures and still win concessions from the international community. They reportedly believe that this influence derives from Pyongyang’s possession of nuclear weapons. [Proliferation] [Evidence] [Defector reports]
• Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons
  Exclusive: Secret apartheid-era papers give first official evidence of Israeli nuclear weapons (1415)Tweet this (797)Chris McGreal in Washington guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 May 2010 21.00 BST Article history The secret military agreement signed by Shimon Peres, now president of Israel, and P W Botha of South Africa. Photograph: Guardian Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons. The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret. [Proliferation]
• U.S. Quiet on China-Pakistan Nuclear Deal
  Thursday, May 20, 2010 The United States has done little to address China's planned sale of two new nuclear power reactors to Pakistan, even though the deal appeared to breach an export control regime's prohibition on nuclear trade with most (sic) countries that have not joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, May 13). [NPT] [Double standards] [Nuclear deal]
• Obama Expands Modernization of Nuclear Arsenal
  By PETER BAKER WASHINGTON — President Obama promised Thursday to spend $80 billion over 10 years to maintain and modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal, a commitment that could help win Republican support for his new arms control treaty with Russia. [NPT] [Nuclear disarmament] [Double standards] [Continuity]
• Is N.Korea on the Way to Developing an H-Bomb?
  North Korea's official Rodong Shinmun newspaper reported on Wednesday that scientists succeeded in creating a nuclear fusion reaction by overcoming "a countless number of technological difficulties completely through their own abilities." The newspaper claimed the success paves the way for the development of a new source of energy. It is difficult to ascertain the truth of the claim based solely on the Rodong Shinmun report and to determine just what type of "nuclear fusion reaction," if any, the North achieved.
• DPRK Succeeds in Nuclear Fusion   
    Pyongyang, May 12 (KCNA) -- Scientists of the DPRK succeeded in nuclear fusion reaction on the significant occasion of the Day of the Sun this year, according to Rodong Sinmun Wednesday. It goes on: The successful nuclear fusion marks a great event that demonstrated the rapidly developing cutting-edge science and technology of the DPRK. The nuclear fusion technology is called "artificial solar" technology as it represents a field of the latest science and technology for the development of new energy desired by humankind. The nuclear fusion technology for obtaining safe and environment-friendly new energy the source of which is abundant draws great attention of world science at present. Scientists of the DPRK have worked hard to develop nuclear fusion technology their own way. They solved a great many scientific and technological problems entirely by their own efforts without the slightest hesitation and vacillation even under the conditions where everything was in short supply and there were a lot of difficulties, thus succeeding in nuclear fusion reaction at last. In this course, Korean style thermo-nuclear reaction devices were designed and manufactured, basic researches into nuclear fusion reaction completed and strong scientific and technological forces built to perfect the thermo-nuclear technology by their own efforts. The successful nuclear fusion in the DPRK made a definite breakthrough toward the development of new energy and opened up a new phase in the nation's development of the latest science and technology.  [Nuclear energy]
• North Korea develops nuclear fusion technology: state media
  May 12, 2010 North Korea announced today it has succeeded in nuclear fusion. It represents “a breakthrough” in its development of nuclear technology, according to the North’s state media. "Nuclear fusion is a breakthrough event that shows North Korea's cutting-edge technology that is leaping forward," the Rodong Sinmun, the news paper for the ruling Workers’ Party
• Nuclear Posture Review and its implications on the Korean Peninsula
  Hyun-Wook KIM May 2010 - Vol. 2, No. 5 Since his inauguration, President Obama has placed substantial emphasis on pushing forward non-proliferation and counter-terrorism. His overall nuclear policy consists of three components: non-proliferation, disarmament and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. This policy was first laid out in President Obama’s Prague speech on April 5, 2009, and further developed in the April 2010 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). These policy adjustments have direct implications for South Korea as a country that is facing an expanded nuclear threat as a result of North Korea’s nuclear development. [NPR10] [US NK policy]
• Kim Jong-il reaffirms denuclearization commitment
  May 07, 2010 North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reaffirmed his country's commitment to denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula during his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao this week in Beijing, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported today. According to the report, Kim and Hu also agreed to “make joint efforts” to build a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and Kim said the North will work with China to create favorable conditions for restarting the six-party talks.” [Denucearisation]
• Time for a nuclear samba
  By Pepe Escobar It does not necessarily take two to samba - but if you samba as a group the result is much more infectious. Brazil has advanced a proposal to unblock the Iranian nuclear dossier that is in fact the common view among the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia , India, China), the emerging geopolitical counter-power to United States hegemony. Iran has all but agreed that Brazil should be the mediator between Tehran and the United Nations - rather than the axis of the US, Britain and France inside the UN Security Council, plus Germany - to finally settle the Iranian nuclear dossier. According to the Fars news agency, after his visit early this week to New York, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, in a phone call with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, told him that Iran had agreed with the Brazilian proposal for a nuclear fuel swap deal for the Tehran research reactor, which produces medical isotopes for cancer treatment. The proposal will be discussed in detail when Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visits Tehran by the end of next week. The Brazilian government - on a "soft" collision course with the Barack Obama administration - has been positioning itself as a mediator for some time. The nuclear swap was first proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) late last year in Vienna. [NPT]
• White House Not Rushing Forward on Test Ban Treaty
  Thursday, May 6, 2010 By Martin Matishak Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration does not have a schedule in place for when it will seek ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a White House official said yesterday (see GSN, April 2). (May. 6) - A 1953 nuclear test in Nevada. The Obama administration has no firm schedule for pursuing ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a White House official said yesterday (Nevada Environmental Protection Division photo). "While I'm optimistic that we will gain ratification, we don't have a time line right now," Jon Wolfsthal, the U.S. National Security Council's nonproliferation director, said during an event at the Brookings Institution. The delay is due in part to the White House preparations for submitting the newly minted U.S.-Russian "New START" nuclear arms control pact to the Senate for approval, according to Wolfsthal, who also serves as special adviser for nonproliferation to Vice President Joseph Biden. Administration officials are also readying themselves for what many experts believe will be a difficult task in obtaining approval of the test ban treaty and waiting to see "what the political dynamics of the Senate are," he added. It remains questionable whether the Senate would support the pact, which it previously rejected more than a decade ago. The United Nations in 1996 adopted the treaty, which now has 182 member nations. The United States is one of 44 "Annex 2" countries that must ratify the pact before it can enter into force. It is also among nine holdouts; the others are China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan [CTBT] [[Disarmament] [NPT} [US global strategy] [Double standards]
• Transcript: Ahmadinejad's interview with the Boston Globe
  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran spoke with Boston Globe reporters Farah Stockman and James F. Smith in New York City on Tuesday, a day after his speech to the opening session of the Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference at the United Nations. He spoke in Farsi and his comments were translated. Here's a link to the Globe article today on the interview, and also video coverage by staff photographer Yoon Byun. The interview covered three main subjects: the nuclear issue, US-Iran relations, andIranian domestic issues. Click on the "extended" button below for the extensive excerpts from the nearly hour-long interview: [NPT] [Double standards]
• Excerpt from Fox news panel on Ahmadinejad, after his NPT speech
  BREAM: We'll leave this topic, but have you stick around. You can read more about the Times Square plot on the homepage at foxnews.com/specialreport. Up next, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks the U.S. over nuclear weapons. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS) MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRANIAN PRESIDENT, (via translator): Regrettably, the United States does not only use nuclear weapons but also continues to threaten the use of such weapons against other countries, including my country. JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: This shows that his charm offensive actually has done Iran some good. Obviously, he irritates some people. But he made some very strong points, which are compelling in the U.N. context to the non-align movement and other non- nuclear weapons states to try and pin the blame for our problems in the nuclear area on the United States and on Israel. [NPT] [Double standards] [Nuclear weapons]
• Controlling Asia's Nuclear Power Tigers
  Charles D. Ferguson 05.04.10, 2:20 AM ET Asia's nuclear power tigers are becoming more globally competitive in part because of Uncle Sam's policies and the decline of America's nuclear industry. While the United States should welcome nuclear power--a very low carbon-emission source--in Asia as long as the highest safety standards are met, Washington needs to address urgently its policies' security consequences: increased potential for nuclear weapons proliferation. In their nuclear power development China, India and South Korea have largely followed the course charted by Japan decades ago. In the 1970s Japan, lacking in fossil fuels, decided to invest heavily in nuclear power. The Japanese bought American technology, which was the best available then. Leveraging technology transfer agreements, Tokyo was able to modify and license U.S. reactor designs for eventual export. This financial model worked so well that during the middle of the last decade two Japanese companies had the financial strength to buy two major U.S. nuclear firms, resulting in Toshiba merging with Westinghouse and Hitachi with GE Nuclear. Tokyo's influence on Washington did not stop with reactor sales. Because of energy security concerns, Japan's prime minister said in the late 1970s that it "was a matter of life or death" for Japan to reprocess spent nuclear fuel in order to recycle plutonium into fuel. But reprocessing raises the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation because a commercial-scale reprocessing plant can extract sufficient plutonium for more than 100 bombs annually. U.S. officials understood this danger and insisted that Japan make its reprocessing plant a showcase for safeguards. Nonetheless, Japan has a latent nuclear weapons capability. The U.S. agreement with Japan has galled South Koreans for many years because they have not received similar treatment. [Nuclear energy] [China competition] [Decline] [US ROK Japan]
• Obama allows India more reprocessors
  K.P. NAYAR Obama, Singh Washington, May 4: President Barack Obama has signalled that he will not lag behind his predecessor George W. Bush in recognising India’s legitimate interests in the course of efforts by his administration to deepen and expand Washington’s relations with New Delhi. In a concession of historic proportions, almost similar to the nuclear deal announced in 2005 by Bush, Obama personally intervened against an intransigent state department and introduced a provision to quadruple the number of reprocessing facilities in India in a recently concluded agreement to alter “in form or content” US-supplied nuclear fuel to New Delhi. The concession in the agreement is historic because it considerably frees up India’s existing and future stocks of material needed for its weapons programme which is independent of the nuclear pact as well as arrangements built around the deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). [Nuclear deal]
• Pakistan nuclear weapons at risk of theft by terrorists, US study warns
  Pakistani PM attends Washington nuclear security summit and insists country has 'appropriate safeguard' for its arsenal Yousaf Raza Gilani and Barack Obama in Washington Pakistan yesterday came under increased pressure over its nuclear arsenal when a Harvard study warned of "a very real possibility" that its warheads could be stolen by terrorists. The rising concern about poorly-guarded nuclear weapons and material was the subject of an extraordinary two-day summit which began in Washington yesterday. Last night, Ukraine became the latest country to volunteer to give up its stores of highly enriched uranium (HEU), which can be used in weapons, and switch its research reactors to low-enriched uranium. There was still considerable anxiety at the Nuclear Security Summit over the safety of more than 2,000 tons more HEU and weapons-grade plutonium stored in 40 countries. There were also persistent doubts over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Pakistan's prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, assured Barack Obama the country has an "appropriate safeguard" for its arsenal, understood to consist of 70-90 nuclear weapons. However, a report by Harvard University's Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs, titled Securing the Bomb 2010, said Pakistan's stockpile "faces a greater threat from Islamic extremists seeking nuclear weapons than any other nuclear stockpile on earth". [Nuclear weapons] [Terrorism]
• Securing the Bomb 2010: Securing All Nuclear Materials in Four Years
  Securing the Bomb 2010, commissioned by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, finds that, in order to meet the four-year objective President Obama set in Prague in April 2009, global leaders must shift global nuclear security effort into a faster and broader trajectory. [Nuclear weapons] [Terrorism] [Seizure]
• U.S. to Reveal Size of Nuclear Arsenal
  The U.S. government is to reveal the amount of nuclear weapons it owns in the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Citing U.S. government officials, the paper reported, "The numbers could be released as soon as Monday, when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is to address the NPT Review Conference." The move aims to demonstrate the will of the Obama administration to realize a world without nuclear weapons after the NPT Review Conference in 2005 collapsed as participating countries accused the Bush administration of not meeting its downsizing obligation. Experts estimate that the U.S. has 9,000 weapons in its nuclear arsenal, of which 5,000 are active and 4,000 due for dismantlement. [Nuclear weapons]
• N.Korea 'Gearing Up to Launch Mid-Range Missile'
  North Korea may fire an intermediate range ballistic missile toward the East Sea in May, Japan's Asahi Shimbun said Friday. Citing an unidentified military source, the daily said South Korea and the United States have detected signs of the imminent missile launch via satellite. It projects that the launch will take place sometime in May despite the fact that it is usually difficult to pinpoint an exact launch site as the rocket uses solid fuel that can be easily assembled as well as a portable launch pad.
• Pakistan Deal Signals China's Growing Nuclear Assertiveness
  Mark Hibbs Nuclear Energy Brief, April 27, 2010 Contrary to guidelines adopted in 1992 by nuclear equipment supplier states in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), China is poised to export two power reactors to Pakistan. This transaction is about to happen at a time when China’s increasingly ambitious nuclear energy program is becoming more autonomous. Guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), representing 46 NPT states, call on parties to the NPT not to supply nuclear equipment to non–nuclear-weapon states without comprehensive IAEA safeguards, including Pakistan. China joined the NSG in 2004. [Nuclear energy] [China rising] [Resurgence]
• NPT review conference 2010: Pakistan’s perspective
  Saturday, May 01, 2010 By Alam Rind The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) encompasses non-proliferation, disarmament and peaceful use of nuclear energy. The treaty was signed on July 1, 1968 and was enforced in 1970. Some 189 countries have ratified the treaty. Four countries which are out of the ambit of the treaty being non-signatories include India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. In fact, North Korea withdrew from the treaty under its Article X.1, after having ratified it. This article introduced by the USA allows states to exercise their sovereign right to withdraw on the basis of other states or parties not complying with their obligations. Out of these countries, India and Pakistan have demonstrated nuclear weapon capability, North Korea has acquired nuclear explosion capability and Israelís nuclear programme is shrouded in ambiguity. Each country has its own reason for pursuing their nuclear programme primarily stemming from their security concerns. The discriminatory nature of the treaty is obvious from the fact that Nuclear Weapon States (NWS), which include China, France, UK, the USA and USSR, are only exhorted, as treaty parties, to negotiate the reduction and elimination of their weapons. In contrast, Non-Nuclear Weapon States (NNWS) are totally forbidden to acquire such weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is empowered to enter into arrangement with them and to verify that there is no deviation from peaceful purposes. The discriminatory nature of the treaty is causing tension among the NPT member states. Since 1970, a review conference is held after every five years to assess the implementation of the treaty. The eighth NPT Review Conference is scheduled from May 3-28 this year. This conference has attained added importance due to heightened terrorist concerns, North Korean defiance, the Iran factor and above all climatic changes. The very foundation of the NPT was shaken when in March 2006, the US and India, a NNWS, concluded a ìcivil nuclear dealî. Under the deal, India has committed 14 of its 22 nuclear power plants as being for civil use, retaining eight to produce weapon grade fissile material. [NPT] [Nuclear deal] [Double standards]
• The Grand Bargain of the NPT and the rules of the nuclear game today.
  By Tad Daley The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed in 1968 and came into force in 1970. In May 2010, both diplomats and nongovernmental leaders are gathering at the UN in New York for the 40 Year NPT Review Conference -- as mandated by the treaty itself -- to assess how the various parties are complying with the various obligations they undertook four long decades ago. Here is the opening section of Chapter 7 of the brand new book from Rutgers University Press by Tad Daley, Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World, www.apocalypsenever.org, called "The Grand Bargain of the NPT and the Rules of the Nuclear Game Today." The year 2008 was filled with anniversary commemorations and remembrances of the many epochal historic events that had taken place four decades earlier, during the seminal year of 1968. The Tet offensive in Vietnam, which for the first time caused many Americans to comprehend that this was a war we might actually lose. The assassination of Martin Luther King, and the riots that ensued around the country. The assassination of leading presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy two months later. The melee at the Chicago Democratic convention. The Mexico City Olympics, and the black power salutes of Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The tumultuous three-way November presidential election and the victory of Richard M. Nixon. And - at the very end of the year, on Christmas Eve - the flight of Apollo 8 from the earth to the moon, and the first view that any humans had ever been granted of our single, borderless, breathtaking planet, lonely and fragile and whole, suspended among the blazing stars. Yet one anniversary, that largely escaped public notice in 2008, may have consequences in the end greater than any of these.
  The 1968 Deal After you finish reading this chapter of Apocalypse Never, go out and try an experiment. Enter a Starbuck's, or some locally owned alternative, and see if you can chat up 100 people waiting in line. There are always people waiting in line at these places. Tell them that on July 1, 1968, in Washington, London, and Moscow, world leaders signed something called the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the "NPT." Then ask them to tell you what it says. In this age of vast civic disengagement, probably around 90 will respond, "I don't know. I never heard of it." Of the remaining ten, probably eight or nine will tell you, "It's about preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. It's about keeping countries like North Korea and Iran from getting The Bomb." Those eight or nine respondents will be half right. In the NPT, the human race endeavored to offer a permanent solution to the great problem of the nuclear age. The grand bargain of the NPT was that the many "nuclear have-nots" agreed forever to forego nuclear weapons, while the few "nuclear haves" agreed to get rid of theirs. No, that is not a misprint. Of your 100 interlocutors, quite likely no more than one or two will know that more than forty years ago, the U.S. government committed itself to eliminate its entire nuclear arsenal. And -- in conjunction with the other nuclear weapon states -- to abolish nuclear weapons from the face of the earth forever. Really. Try the experiment today. [NPT] [Double standards]

• China will seek to balance between nuclear and non-nuclear weapon states at upcoming non-proliferation conference, says SIPRI
   By admin | April 26th, 2010 | Category: Latest, Nuclear | 1 Comment » China will be a crucial player at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference starting in New York on 3 May, according to a report released today by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). China is unlikely to adopt positions directly in line with the United States, US allies, or Russia. Rather, it will seek to balance its positions between nuclear weapon and non-nuclear weapon states. As a nuclear weapon state with an increasing international profile on disarmament issues, China will strike a position to balance between the big nuclear powers and the non-nuclear weapon states. The report ‘China and Nuclear Arms Control: Current Positions and Future Policies’ by SIPRI Director Dr Bates Gill states that China regularly suggests the other nuclear powers should follow its example in adopting policies such as no-first-use of nuclear weapons and no-nuclear-umbrella policies. ‘China is likely to side with many of the leading non-nuclear weapon states by emphasizing the need for disarmament, especially by Russia and the United States,’ states Gill. ‘China will not disarm if Russia and the USA do not. And China criticized earlier ‘double standards’ exercised by the USA regarding the nuclear programmes of countries such as India and Israel.’ [NPT] [China rising] [Double standards]  
• Western Civilization is Doomed
  The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty: Last Gasp of a Moribund Civilization
  By Prof. John Kozy     Global Research, April 27, 2010 "Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding." Ralph Waldo Emerson When I was a boy, I knew a man who repaired clocks and watches as a hobby. (Quartz watches had not yet been invented.) I often sat for hours in utter fascination watching him work. Then one day, I asked, "Frank, how do you know how to do that?" He answered, "Johnny, what man has done, man can do." Therein lies the fallacy of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Science and technology is a Pandora's Box. Once opened by one man, company, or country, what is emitted soon becomes everyone's.   [Decline] [NPT]
• Seoul’s Hosting of Nuclear Summit to Corner Pyongyang
  By Na Jeong-ju Staff Reporter South Korea's hosting of the next Nuclear Security Summit suggests that the United States will tackle North Korea more actively in the coming years as part of its global anti-proliferation initiatives, an American nuclear expert said. At the inaugural summit in Washington D.C. in early April, which drew the leaders of 47 countries, South Korea was unanimously chosen as the host of the next meeting scheduled to take place in the first half of 2012. It is known that U.S. President Barack Obama, who initiated the premier global security forum, proposed Seoul's hosting of the next summit during a telephone conversation with President Lee Myung-bak just before Lee flew to Washington to participate in the meeting. [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards] [Manipulation]
• Ahmadinejad seeks to address U.N. conference on nuclear weapons
  By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, April 28, 2010; 5:10 PM UNITED NATIONS -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has requested a visa to travel next week to New York to address a U.N. conference aimed at stemming the spread of nuclear weapons, a move that sets the stage for a potential confrontation with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton over Tehran's nuclear intentions. [UNUS] [Proliferation] [Nuclear weapons]
• North Korea’s Nuclear Affair With Iran
  27 April 2010 By Yuriko Koike Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed the New START agreement in Prague three weeks ago, and on May 3 the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference will open in New York. These examples of nuclear arms reductions and nonproliferation are good news for everyone, everywhere. But neither the New START nor the upcoming nonproliferation conference will have much impact on today’s most perilous threat: the nuclear honeymoon between an Iran determined to acquire a nuclear weapons capacity and a North Korea willing to sell Iran much of that capacity for hard currency. [Proliferation] [Double standards]
• Gadhafi: US nuclear snub of Libya hurts peace
  By MATTHEW LEE The Associated Press Monday, April 26, 2010; 5:08 PM WASHINGTON -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi complained Monday that the Obama administration had not invited him to a nuclear security summit earlier this month in Washington and said the snub would hurt efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Gadhafi, speaking via video link from Tripoli, said the failure to invite Libya was a "political blunder" as it was the most recent nation to give up its weapons of mass destruction programs voluntarily. He said not rewarding Libya's move with an invitation made it difficult to persuade Iran or North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions. "It was a mistake," he told a conference on U.S.-Libyan relations. "Libya should have been invited, should have been thanked," Gadhafi said. "It was not useful for world peace and it was not useful for disarmament. It does not encourage others to follow Libya's example. I would really like to express my strong regret for Libya not having been invited to that conference." [Renege] [Disarmament] [Double standards]
• U.S. Resists Push by Allies for Tactical Nuclear Cuts  
  By MARK LANDLER Published: April 22, 2010 TALLINN, Estonia — Fresh from signing a strategic nuclear arms agreement with Russia, the United States is parrying a push by several NATO allies to withdraw its aging stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons from Europe. [US global strategy] [Nuclear weapons]
• Nuclear Posture Review and North Korea
  By Wooksik Cheong April 16th, 2010 Wooksik Cheong, representative of the Korea Peace Network, writes, “The Obama administration has offered ‘carrots’ along with ‘sticks’ when it comes to North Korea. It has implied that the US will offer ‘negative security assurance’ only if North Korea lets goes of its nuclear weapons and returns to the NPT. It is understood to be somewhat unfair for both sides under an armistice situation, when the only assurance of security is conditional on abandoning nuclear weapons first. From this point of view, it seems a strong probability that North Korea will expand its nuclear arsenal.” [Sequencing] [NPR10] [Nuclear weapons]
• North Korea says no plans to abandon nuclear weapons
  North Korea said it would not abandon its nuclear weapons program, but was ready to take part in non-proliferation efforts together "with other nuclear weapons states," South Korea's Yonhap agency said on Wednesday. "We will produce as many nuclear weapons as we think necessary, but we will neither participate in the nuclear arms race nor produce them in excess," the agency quoted a memorandum issued by the North Korean foreign ministry as saying. The ministry said the North was ready to "take part in international efforts on nuclear disarmament on an equal footing with other nuclear weapons states." Russia, the United States, France, China and the United Kingdom are considered to be nuclear weapons states (NWS), an internationally recognized status conferred by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which came into force in 1970. North Korea claims to be a nuclear weapons state after conducting two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, though the status has never been internationally confirmed. It withdrew from the NPT treaty in 2003. "Assuming equal positions of all nuclear weapons states, we are ready to join forces with the international community in nuclear non-proliferation and safe storage of nuclear materials," the memorandum reads. The six-party talks involving the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan came to a halt last April when North Korea walked out of negotiations in protest against the United Nations' condemnation of its missile tests. "Regardless of whether the six-party talks resume or not, we, as ever, will make consistent efforts for the global denuclearization, including on the Korean Peninsula," the ministry said. "The mission of Korea's nuclear forces is to contain and repel aggression and a [nuclear] strike against the country and the nation until the Korean Peninsula and the world are completely nuclear-free," the memorandum reads. The announcement comes amid media reports that the communist state, which is banned from conducting nuclear or ballistic tests under UN Resolution 1718, was preparing to carry out its third nuclear test. Earlier in the day, South Korean YTN quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying the North began preparations for a third test in February. U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters that he was "skeptical of that report." MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti) [Nuclear weapons] [Proliferation] [Media] [Double standards] [Conditionality]
• Lawmakers Warn of NPT Review Conference Failure
  Friday, April 23, 2010 By Martin Matishak Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON -- The upcoming Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference will be a failure unless the United States convinces the international community to take a stronger stand against the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said this week (see GSN, April 19).
  "You are absolutely assured that we are going to fail to achieve all our important objectives at this conference" because the administration has not told NPT member states that failure to fully embrace U.S. positions on Iran and North Korea could affect their access to U.S. aid and trade, according to Sherman. He also warned the administration against trying to pressure Israel to sign the nonproliferation treaty. Jerusalem is widely presumed to be the only nuclear-armed Middle Eastern state, but maintains a policy of ambiguity regarding its arsenal. "I would just say that friends don't ask friends to commit suicide. And so I hope you're not doing so," the California lawmaker said. [Nonproliferation] [Double standards] [Sanctions] [Pressure]
• Foreign Ministry Issues Memorandum on N-Issue  
    Pyongyang, April 21 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Foreign Ministry, in a memorandum issued on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday, underscored the need to get a correct understanding of how nuclearization started on the peninsula and what was the root cause of it if a solution to the denuclearization of the peninsula is to be found with proper understanding of its essence. According to the memorandum, no nation in the world has been exposed to the nuclear threat so directly and for so long time as the Koreans. Koreans were the second biggest victims of the U.S. A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki next to Japanese as they directly suffered from them.
  So, A-bomb threat made by the U.S. during the last Korean War was a nightmare in the true sense of the word. This nuclear blackmail resulted in the mass exodus of "A-bomb-driven refugees" from the north to the south in the Korean Peninsula during the war.
  The DPRK has invariably maintained the policy not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states or threaten them with nukes as long as they do not join nuclear weapons states in invading or attacking it.  [Nuclear weapons]
• US has own nuclear security issues
   By SHARON THEIMER The Associated Press Monday, April 12, 2010; 2:33 PM Monday, April 12, 2010; 2:33 PM   WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama, holding a summit to urge world leaders to secure their nuclear material, frequently calls the risk of terrorists getting a nuke "the single biggest threat to U.S. security." What he is less likely to talk about is the United States' own shortcomings in safeguarding its nuclear stockpile.  
• Nuclear Summit: List of World Leaders Attending
  Posted by CBSNews.com Leave Comment  Below is the list of heads of state or other delegation leaders represented at the Nuclear Security Summit that President Obama is hosting in Washington today and tomorrow, as provided by the White House:  
• What is most likely to denuclearize North Korea
  Monday, April 12, 2010 ONE BACKDROP to President Obama's multilateral summit on nuclear issues this week is North Korea's continuing refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons program or even negotiate about it. Six-party talks, intended to involve South and North Korea, Japan, China, Russia, and the United States, have come to a standstill. But if diplomacy is stalemated, other events are roiling the region. Intelligence about the isolated and repressive North Korean regime is notoriously limited, but many analysts perceive unprecedented instability
  What's most likely is that it doesn't matter: that the North Korean regime will never give up its nuclear weapons, because it has nothing else -- no legitimacy at home or abroad. As in Iran, the problem is the regime more than the weapons. That's not an argument against engagement with Kim Jong Il any more than with the mullahs. It is an argument for clear-eyed engagement, though -- with a recognition that in the long run only a change in the nature of North Korea's government is likely to solve this problem. [US NK policy] [Regime change]
• Tehran Disarmament Conference
  Official website
• Iran miffed (sic) by US's nuclear posture
  By Kaveh L Afrasiabi "Even [president George W] Bush did not say what [Barack] Obama is saying." - Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad NEW YORK - Tehran has reacted sharply to the new United States nuclear doctrine that explicitly targets Iran and North Korea and allows for the threat and use of nuclear weapons against them. Leading the charge, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has accused the Barack Obama administration of nuclear duplicity and being more warmongering than the predecessor administration of George W Bush. The US Nuclear Posture Review, which was unveiled this week on the eve of the Prague signing of a new bilateral arms control treaty between the US and Russia, is notable for its prioritization of nuclear terrorism and threats of nuclear proliferation, as opposed to traditional Cold-War type nuclear threats. It also has a contradictory position. On the one hand it explicitly reduces the role of nuclear weapons in the US's national security strategy. On the other it increases the coercive diplomatic role of the US's nuclear wherewithal as a strategy for "reversing" the nuclear ambitions of countries such as Iran and North Korea, and for deterring the would-be nuclear-seekers with the blunt threat of a US nuclear backlash. "This document will definitely hurt Obama's image in the world because it shows an uncivilized superpower that bullies other nations with its nuclear bombs," a Tehran University political scientist told the author. "From Iran's point of view, the US government has made a serious error by going public with its aggressive nuclear intentions that defy the UN charter and international law," the Tehran professor said. [NPR10] [Continuity] [Media]
• Foreign Ministry Dismisses US Nuclear Plan
  Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA Friday as regards the U.S. publication of its "Nuclear Posture Review": The review made public on April 6 proves that the present U.S. administration still regards nukes as a mainstay in carrying out its strategy for world domination. President Obama blustered that the U.S. will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states that comply with the provisions of NPT but exception is made for countries such as the DPRK and Iran. This proves that the present U.S. policy towards the DPRK is nothing different from the hostile policy pursued by the Bush administration at the outset of its office during which it was hell-bent on posing a nuclear threat to the DPRK after designating it as a "target of preemptive nuclear strike."
  By releasing the review the U.S. completely backpedaled its commitment made in the September 19 Joint Statement of the six-party talks that it has no intention to attack or invade the DPRK with nuclear weapons or conventional weapons, and again chilled the hard-won atmosphere for the resumption of the talks. [NPR10] [JS050919] [Renege]
• The Domestic and International Politics of Spent Nuclear Fuel in South Korea: Are We Approaching Meltdown?
  By Park Seong-won, Miles Pomper, and Larry Scheinman April 8th, 2010 Park Seong-won is a Visiting Fellow, Miles Pomper is a Senior Research Associate, and Larry Scheinman is a Distinguished Professor at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. The authors write, “nuclear power has brought important benefits to the ROK, but also one particularly negative consequence: an accumulation of spent nuclear fuel that will soon outstrip the country’s storage capacity for highly radioactive waste. With the current nuclear cooperation agreement between South Korea and the United States set to expire in 2014, and an increasingly urgent need to find a solution, Seoul and Washington will have to overcome previous tensions on the issue.” [Sovereignty]
• Obama restricts nuclear posture except for North
  [NEWS ANALYSIS] U.S. consulted Korea before change April 07, 2010 The United States will make an exception for “outliers like ... North Korea” in its revamped nuclear strategy, assuring South Korea that its protective nuclear umbrella will remain in place. In an interview with The New York Times, President Barack Obama said North Korea will be an exception even after the United States historically narrows conditions under which it would deploy nuclear weapons. [NPR10][US NK policy]
• Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in Tehran, 17-18 April, 2010
  Press Release The embassy of Islamic Republic of Iran in wellington announces:
  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Islamic Republic of Iran is organizing a conference in Tehran entitled “International Disarmament and Non Proliferation” on 17th and 18th of April 2010. (be email from Iranian embassy, Wellington) [Disarmament]
• Obama Curbs U.S. Nuclear Weapons Development, Usage Policy
  Tuesday, April 6, 2010 The Obama administration today issued its Nuclear Posture Review, swearing off creation of new nuclear weapons and significantly limiting the circumstances under which such armaments could be used, according to news reports (see GSN, March 24). (Apr. 6) - U.S. President Barack Obama, shown last week, today issued a new Nuclear Posture Review that substantially reduces possible situations in which the United States would use nuclear weapons (Sara Davis/Getty Images). The document pledges the United States not to conduct nuclear strikes on non-nuclear states, a change in policy from the Bush administration stance that allowed for an atomic response to a biological or chemical strike, Reuters reported (Stewart/Spetalnick, Reuters, April 6). President Barack Obama told the New York Times that the new policy does not apply to "outliers like Iran and North Korea" that are in noncompliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or have withdrawn from the pact. [NPR10] [Continuity] [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• Nuclear Posture Review Report
  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In his April 2009 speech in Prague, President Obama highlighted 21st century nuclear dangers, declaring that to overcome these grave and growing threats, the United States will “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” He recognized that such an ambitious goal could not be reached quickly – perhaps, he said, not in his lifetime. But the President expressed his determination to take concrete steps toward that goal, including by reducing the number of nuclear weapons and their role in U.S. national security strategy. At the same time, he pledged that as long as nuclear weapons exist, the United States will maintain a safe, secure, and effective arsenal, both to deter potential adversaries and to assure U.S. allies and other security partners that they can count on America’s security commitments. The 2010 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) outlines the Administration’s approach to promoting the President’s agenda for reducing nuclear dangers and pursuing the goal of a world without nuclear weapons, while simultaneously advancing broader U.S. security interests. The NPR reflects the President’s national security priorities and the supporting defense strategy objectives identified in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review. After describing fundamental changes in the international security environment, the NPR report focuses on five key objectives of our nuclear weapons policies and posture: 1. Preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism; 2. Reducing the role of U.S. nuclear weapons in U.S. national security strategy; 3. Maintaining strategic deterrence and stability at reduced nuclear force levels; 4. Strengthening regional deterrence and reassuring U.S. allies and partners; and 5. Sustaining a safe, secure, and effective nuclear arsenal. [NPR10] [Continuity] [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• Excerpts from Obama’s New Nuclear Strategy
  Published: April 5, 2010 The Nuclear Posture Review to be released by the Obama administration on Tuesday will renounce the development of new nuclear warheads and the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that adhere to treaty commitments. The following are excerpts from the new strategy: "The United States will continue to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in deterring non-nuclear attacks. To that end, the United States is now prepared to strengthen its long-standing 'negative security assurance' by declaring that the United States will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states that are party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and in compliance with their nuclear non-proliferation obligations. This revised assurance is intended to underscore the security benefits of adhering to and fully complying with the NPT and persuade non-nuclear weapons states party to the Treaty to work with the United States and other interested parties to adopt effective measures to strengthen the non-proliferation regime. "In making this strengthened assurance, the United States affirms that any state eligible for the assurance that uses chemical or biological weapons against the United States or its allies and partners would face the prospect of a devastating conventional military response - and that any individuals responsible for the attack, whether national leaders or military commanders, would be held fully accountable. "Given the catastrophic potential of biological weapons and the rapid pace of bio-technology development, the United States reserves the right to make any adjustment in the assurance that may be warranted by the evolution and proliferation of the biological weapons threat and US capacities to counter that threat."
  On the Development of New Nuclear Weapons: "The United States will not develop new nuclear warheads. Life Extension Programs will use only nuclear components based on previously tested designs, and will not support new military missions or provide for new military capabilities." [NPR10] [Continuity] [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• Obama Limits When U.S. Would Use Nuclear Arms
  By DAVID E. SANGER and PETER BAKER Published: April 5, 2010 WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons. But the president said in an interview that he was carving out an exception for “outliers like Iran and North Korea” that have violated or renounced the main treaty to halt nuclear proliferation. Discussing his approach to nuclear security the day before formally releasing his new strategy, Mr. Obama described his policy as part of a broader effort to edge the world toward making nuclear weapons obsolete, and to create incentives for countries to give up any nuclear ambitions. To set an example, the new strategy renounces the development of any new nuclear weapons, overruling the initial position of his own defense secretary. Mr. Obama’s strategy is a sharp shift from those of his predecessors and seeks to revamp the nation’s nuclear posture for a new age in which rogue states and terrorist organizations are greater threats than traditional powers like Russia and China. [NPR10] [Continuity] [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards] [Terrorism]
• Excerpts From Obama Interview
  Published: April 5, 2010 Following are excerpts of a New York Times interview with President Obama conducted Monday by David E. Sanger and Peter Baker in the Oval Office, about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty:
  Q. The posture review clearly makes most nations immune from first strike — with some notable exceptions: nuclear states — but the most interesting new exception that you have in this is states like Iran and North Korea, that are, particularly in Iran’s case, not living up to the NPT, at least as viewed by many around the world. If you were Iran or North Korea and you read this document, what would your takeaway be from it?
  A. What I hope everybody understands is that coming into office I’ve tried to maintain a consistent, comprehensive strategy that moves us in the direction of strengthening the Non-Proliferation Treaty and that encourages countries to abide by international codes of conduct and basic rules of the road.
  And I do think that when you’re looking at outliers like Iran or North Korea, they should see that over the course of the last year and a half we have been executing a policy that will increasingly isolate them so long as they are operating outside of accepted international norms.
  Q. Mr. President, you raise a critical question there when you said “nuclear weapons capabilities.” You have said before you could not live with a nuclear weapon state in Iran, and many members of your administration have said that. People have been less specific about whether you could live with a nuclear-capable Iran, an Iran that runs right up to the edge. A. I’m not going to parse that right now. I think it’s safe to say that there was a time when North Korea was said to be simply a nuclear-capable state until it kicked out the I.A.E.A. and become a self-professed nuclear state. And so rather than splitting hairs on this, I think that the international community has a strong sense of what it means to pursue civilian nuclear energy for peaceful purposes versus a weaponizing capability. [NPR10] [Continuity] [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards] [Terrorism] [Sanctions]
• Fourth nuclear power plant may open on Oct. 10 next year
  2010/04/05 20:49:15 Taipei, April 5 (CNA) The state-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) said Monday that it was striving to begin operation at the fourth nuclear power plant by National Day next year. [Nuclear energy]
• New Nuclear Issue on the Korean Peninsula: The Rise of Korea’s Nuclear Power Industry
  by Troy Stangarone (ts@keia.org) In the past few months, Korea’s profile as a peaceful nuclear power has risen with the announcement of a deal for its first ever export of a nuclear power plant—to the United Arab Emirates. Since that announcement, Korea has reached an agreement to build a research reactor for Jordan and hopes to win a contract to build a reactor in Turkey as well. [Nuclear energy] [Double standards]
• First-Stage Rocket Engine of Naro to Arrive on Weekend
  With the country preparing for another attempt to launch its first space launch vehicle, dubbed Naro, in June, the engine of its first-stage rocket is scheduled to arrive in Korea from Russia over the weekend. [KSLV]
• Bucks for the bang: North Korea’s nuclear program and Northeast Asian military spending
  Wade L. Huntley Delineating the impact of North Korea’s nuclear program on overall military spending among the other principal states of Northeast Asia is challenging. This article presents a foundation to address that challenge. After summarizing key elements of North Korea’s nuclear program, the article introduces frameworks to examine the security consequences of the program for the Northeast Asian region and assess North Korea’s motivations to pursue nuclear capabilities. The reviews indicate how these frameworks can be used to deduce hypotheses of more specific linkages of North Korea’s activities to other states’ military spending decisions, some strategically motivated and others more influenced by symbolism and domestic politics. The article concludes with observations on contemporary developments derived from the analysis. [Military balance]
• US-Russia Nuclear Deal Could Curb Proliferation by North Korea, Iran
  By Kim Young-jin Staff Reporter The new major arms control deal between the United States and Russia could help curb nuclear proliferation by North Korea and Iran, and boost the influence of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), a senior U.S. official said Monday in Washington, D.C. [Proliferation]

• N.Korea to build light water reactor soon: state media
  (AFP) – 1 day ago SEOUL — North Korea will build a light water nuclear power plant "in the near future", its official news agency said Monday, also taking a swipe at speculation about the health of leader Kim Jong-Il. The country "will witness the appearance of a light water reactor power plant relying on its own nuclear fuel in the near future in the 2010s", the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a lengthy commentary. [Nuclear energy]
• Korea Develops Nuclear Reactor Software
  Korea has developed a home-grown version of nuclear reactor core software for the construction of nuclear power plants. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company on Monday said that research institutes led by Korea Nuclear Fuel have succeeded in developing the reactor core software using only their own expertise.
• Israel won’t change nuclear policy’
  By YAAKOV KATZ 29/03/2010 Defense official: No plan to offer concessions regarding purported capability. Israel does not plan on offering any concessions regarding its purported nuclear capability at the Nuclear Security Summit that US President Barack Obama will host in Washington, DC, next month, a top defense official said on Sunday. The US and Russia announced on Friday that they would sign a new START agreement that will reduce the nuclear arsenals in both countries by 30 percent. Following the signing of the agreement on April 8, Obama will host the two-day Nuclear Security Summit, aimed at preventing rogue regimes and terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons. According to the top defense official, Israel does not plan on announcing any changes to its current policy of ambiguity when it comes to its nuclear program. “We will not change anything on this issue,” the official said. “There is no reason to wake up the bears.”
  Israel had initially been wary of the summit amid concern that it would be asked to reveal details about its purported nuclear capability. Israel is believed to have several hundred nuclear weapons, according to foreign reports. [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• Arms Control’s New Era
  March 28, 2010 Editorial The negotiations took a lot longer and were more grueling than anyone expected, but the United States and Russia have finally agreed on a nuclear weapons agreement to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Although the deal makes only modest cuts in both countries’ arsenals, President Obama deserves credit for reviving an arms control process that his predecessor disparaged as a cold-war relic. He is now leading the way on reducing the nuclear threat. This new accord will substantially strengthen his hand to press for tighter controls on nuclear materials at a nuclear security summit meeting next month, and then for tighter penalties on nuclear scofflaws like Iran and North Korea at a Nonproliferation Treaty review conference in May.
  The administration must convince senators that the verification regime is credible and that the text does not limit America’s ability to pursue missile defense [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards] [Missile defense]
• Europe's Nuclear-Disarmament Delusion
  Removing American nukes from European soil won't make the Continent safer. By MICHAEL ANTON Among the many links that bind together the NATO alliance, and therefore the West, the presence of American nuclear weapons on the soil of five NATO nations is not one that gets a lot of love or attention. Yet it is vital just the same. Serious voices on both sides of the Atlantic are now advocating that this tie be severed. They should not be heeded. Calls of this kind are not new. Disarmament advocates have long looked to exploit any chinks in the armor of the West's network of nuclear security pacts and deployments. But until recently, hardly anyone listened to them. But it's hard to ignore the chancellor of Germany and the president of the United States [Disarmament] [US global strategy] [Double standards]
• Iran to host nuclear disarmament meet, wants India support
  Sachin Parashar, TNN, Mar 25, 2010, 12.48am IST NEW DELHI: Recent hiccups in its relations with India over its controversial nuclear programme notwithstanding, Iran is looking forward to Indian participation in a conference on nuclear disarmament it is organising next month in Tehran. Scheduled for April 17-18, the conference — Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapon for None — has led to much heartburn as the West believes it is an attempt by Tehran to deflect pressure it has been subjected to internationally for its nuclear activities. [NPT] [Nuclear weapons]
• Pakistan Pursues Probe of Khan Nuclear Dealings
  Monday, March 22, 2010 Islamabad is seeking a judge's approval to interview former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan as part of a probe into his alleged efforts to provide nuclear-weapon materials and expertise to Iraq and Iran, Reuters reported today (see GSN, March 10). [Proliferation]
• South Korea’s Global Nuclear Ambitions
  David Adam Stott Introduction “We had been building nuclear power stations for 30 years but had failed in repeated attempts to break into international markets.” South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in a January 2010 radio address. [1] December 2009 was an historic month for the South Korean nuclear industry. In winning two bidding competitions to design and construct nuclear power plants in the Middle East, it dramatically signalled its arrival as an international force in the sector. The opening announcement concerned Jordan’s first nuclear research reactor whilst the second, and most important, was a massive contract to build at least four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The South Korean team was one of nine original bidders and beat off competition from France and an American-Japanese consortium from the final shortlist of three. As the USA, France and Japan account for almost half of the world’s total nuclear reactors, this was an impressive achievement, especially since it will be the first nuclear power plant that Korea has exported. [Nuclear energy] [Double standards]
• SolBridge Vice-Chancellor nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
  Dr. John Endicott, the SolBridge Vice-Chancellor and President of Woosong University, has been informed recently by Finnish and American sources that he has been nominated for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. This nomination is his second (2005) and is in recognition of his work and those involved in the process to realize a Limited Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in Northeast Asia (LNWFZ-NEA). Endicott is the Chairman of the Interim Secretariat for the LNWFZ-NEA which had its 12th plenary meeting in October 2008 at SolBridge International School of Business. [proliferation] [double standards]
• What Position Should S.Korea Take on a Nuclear-Free World?
  A global debate is underway about the idea of a nuclear-free world. It was touched off by a discussion between former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former defense secretary William Perry published in a U.S. newspaper in 2007, and U.S. President Barack Obama made it one of his election slogans.
  A particular concern is the effect on the U.S. promise to stop nuclear proliferation. The more the role of nuclear weapons is reduced, the less South Korea can rely in the nuclear umbrella. South Korea should support the overall goal in principle but the security situation on the peninsula must be taken into account. South Korea and the U.S. should strengthen strategic dialogue so the nuclear shield offered by the U.S., remains in place. And Seoul should urge the international community to make a joint effort for making the Korean Peninsula the starting point of a nuclear-free world and strengthen the South's capability to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. [Nuclear disarmament] [Double standards] [US global strategy]
• S. Korea, Japan Can Build Nuclear Weapons Quickly  
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea, like Japan, has the technology to build a nuclear arsenal quickly if it decides to do so, a U.S. defense report said Thursday. "Several friends or allies of the United States, such as Japan and South Korea, are highly advanced technological states and could quickly build nuclear devices if they chose to do so," said the Joint Operating Environment (JOE) 2010, released on Feb. 18, by the U.S. Joint Forces Command. The biennial report forecasts possible threats and opportunities for the U.S. military. The 2008 report categorized South Korea, Taiwan and Japan as three "threshold nuclear states" that have the capability to develop nuclear weapons rapidly, should their political leaders decide to do so.
  The U.S. government fears South Korea's reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel might undermine global nonproliferation efforts, and provoke the North, and then Japan, making the security situation in Northeast Asia more volatile. The JOE said North Korea is "pursuing nuclear weapons technology and the means to deliver them as well." The 2008 edition had categorized North Korea as a nuclear power, saying, "The rim of the great Asian continent is already home to five nuclear powers: China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Russia." [Nuclear weapons] [Japanese remilitarisation] [Nuclearisation]  
• Nuke Review Further Delayed in U.S.
  Thursday, March 18, 2010 The Obama administration has further pushed back the planned release of a forthcoming U.S. nuclear weapons policy review to permit further consideration of the document's content, a U.S. Defense Department official told lawmakers Tuesday (see GSN, March 8). (Mar. 18) - A technician examines the nose cone of a U.S. B-61 Mod 11 nuclear gravity bomb. The United States has again delayed the release of a major nuclear weapons strategy review, an official said yesterday (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration photo). The pending Nuclear Posture Review would be unveiled within one month, Principal Deputy Defense Undersecretary James Miller said. The report was originally slated for publication last December, then pushed back to March 1 and then delayed again (see GSN, Jan. 6). “The Nuclear Posture Review will be a foundational document for this administration,” Miller told a House Armed Services Committee panel. [US global strategy] [Nuclear weapons]
• Senators lobby Biden for Malmstrom
  By Tribune Staff • March 18, 2010 U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, both Montana Democrats, met with Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday to make the case that a robust national defense means retaining all 450 U.S. land-based intercontinental missiles. Baucus and Tester told Biden that maintaining the nation's current land-based force is a relatively cost-effective way to keep America's national security strong. [US global strategy] [Nuclear weapons]
• Expert Warns of N.Korean Uranium Supply to Iran
  A U.S. expert has raised the over reports that North Korea exported unenriched uranium to Syria before a reactor there was bombed by Israel, claiming the material may have been intended for Iran. Leonard Spector, a deputy director of the Monterey Institute of International Studies' James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, made the remarks Tuesday. Spector quoted reports as saying the 45 tons of what is known as "yellowcake" were then delivered to Iran via Turkey. The material would be sufficient for several nuclear weapons if enriched to weapons grade. The 45 tons could be only the first of many such shipments, he speculated. "After having flagrantly violated relevant UN Security Council resolutions by continuing their respective nuclear operations, it now appears that North Korea and Iran may have begun to assist each other to bypass the Council's demands," he said. He warned that a North Korea-Iran nuclear axis could gravely undermine international nonproliferation efforts. The report came from Japan's Kyodo News citing unnamed sources. [NGO] [Double standards]
• State Department Looks to Revamp Arms Control Bureaus
  Wednesday, March 17, 2010 By Martin Matishak Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON -- The U.S. State Department has begun examining ways to strengthen its arms control bureaus in order to better implement President Barack Obama's nonproliferation agenda, according to Washington's top diplomat (see GSN, March 11).
  The Verification, Compliance and Implementation Bureau is responsible for providing policy oversight and resources for all matters relating to the certification of other countries' compliance or noncompliance with international arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament agreements. The agency is headed by Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, the lead U.S. negotiator in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty follow-on talks taking place in Geneva (see related GSN story, today). Its duties include preparing reports on proliferation activities by Iran, North Korea and Syria and supporting intelligence activities regarding WMD programs in other nations. [Proliferation] [Double standards] [Continuity]
• Seoul Pledges to Develop Nuclear Recycling Technologies
  The government on Thursday pledged to develop technology that will dramatically reduce radioactive waste and recycle spent nuclear fuel as an alternative resource
• The Nuclear Arsenal in Europe Washington Mulls Modernization of Aging Bombs
  By Otfried Nassauer Germany's foreign minister has called for the removal of Cold War legacy nuclear weapons being stored here, but some in Washington may have other plans. The US Department of Energy is requesting a budget of close to $2 billion to modernize the country's oldest models of nuclear weapons, including those being kept in Germany. In a move that could have an impact on the future of nuclear weapons stored in Germany and other parts of Europe, the United States Department of Energy has included requests in its latest budget proposal for funding to modernize parts of the country's aging nuclear arsenal -- a move that would seem to contradict the vision of a nuclear weapons-free world President Barack Obama announced last year. [Nuclear weapons] [Continuity]
• Confronting a Nuclear Tipping Point
  Interviewee:  George P. Shultz, Former Secretary of State Interviewer:  Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor, CFR.org  March 12, 2010 The idea of nuclear disarmament is gaining support internationally, with the United States leading the charge and China and Russia expressing interest, says George P. Shultz, Ronald Reagan's secretary of state from 1982-89. But talks on concluding a second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the Russians and the pending Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty should emphasize verification, says Shultz. Supporting de-nuclearization efforts must also include forcefully countering a nuclear proliferation tipping point, he says. "Iran has to be confronted; North Korea has to be confronted; the nuclear fuel cycle has to be confronted, and so on," he warns. "A lot of concrete things will have to start getting done." [Non-proliferation] [US global strategy] [Nuclear weapons]
• S.Korea Builds Experimental Nuclear Reprocessing Plant
  South Korea recently started constructing a test facility for a sodium-cooled fast reactor capable of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel without generating weapons-grade plutonium, an official at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute said Sunday. The move seeks to get around a clause in the Korea-U.S. Atomic Energy Agreement that bans Seoul from reprocessing its own nuclear fuel. The agreement expires in 2014. [Non-proliferation] [Sovereignty] [Double standards]  
• Mideast feels 'tricked' by nuclear arms treaty
  (AFP) – 16 hours ago GENEVA — Middle Eastern countries feel tricked by the 40-year-old nuclear non proliferation treaty, an Egyptian diplomat warned on Wednesday, less than two months before crucial talks on the arms control deal. Egypt's ambassador to the UN in Geneva and the conference on disarmament, Hisham Badr, said there was widespread resentment towards the NPT, which forms the cornerstone of efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. The treaty, which is at the heart of issues like North Korea's and Iran's nuclear programmes, is due to be reviewed at a conference on May 3 to 28 in New York in an attempt to strengthen it. Under the NPT, nuclear powers are meant to move to disarm in return for a pledge by other countries not to seek nuclear weapons. The right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy is also enshrined but under international oversight. Badr suggested the nuclear powers had failed to hold their side of the bargain, while attempts to secure a nuclear weapons free Middle East at the NPT have constantly been postponed
  There is widespread resentment in the region towards the NPT and what it seeks to achieve, its double standards and lack of political will." Non-aligned states, which Egypt currently heads, have called on Israel to formally renounce nuclear weapons. [NPT] [Double standards]
• Pentagon Eyes More Than $800 Million for New Nuclear Cruise Missile
  Tuesday, March 9, 2010 By Elaine M. Grossman Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Air Force plans to spend more than $800 million to build a new nuclear-armed cruise missile for its bomber aircraft, according to little-noticed details buried inside the Obama administration's fiscal 2011 budget request delivered last month to Capitol Hill (see GSN, Dec. 16, 2009).
  Kristensen, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Nuclear Information Project, said that even if the Nuclear Posture Review envisions a continued role for a nuclear-armed bomber for the time being, funding the future cruise missile would seem to "fly in the face of the president's pledge." "Who are we kidding?" he said in an interview last week. "We're telling the world we're not going to produce new nuclear weapons, and in the first budget of the administration there is a new nuclear weapon." [Continuity] [Nuclear weapons] [US global strategy] [Double standards]
• Obama's Nuclear Power Plan Cheers Koreans
  South Korea kept building nuclear plants for decades. Its low-cost approach could benefit as the U.S. and others revive nuclear construction By Moon Ihlwan Few business executives outside the U.S. saw better opportunities in President Barack Obama's recent embrace of nuclear power than Kim Ha Bang. His company, South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has already won deals to provide six reactors and a dozen steam generators to Westinghouse Electric, the main contractor to build six nuclear power plants in the U.S., including two in Georgia that will directly benefit from $8.3 billion in loan guarantees that Obama announced on Feb. 16. "Obama will certainly be a spur to a renaissance in nuclear power," says Kim, global marketing chief for Doosan's nuclear power plant business. [Nuclear energy] [Agreed Framework] [Unintended consequences]
• U.S. Seen Ruling Out "No First Use" Nuke Policy
  Monday, March 1, 2010 The Obama administration has ruled out pledging in a forthcoming U.S. nuclear strategy review that the United States will never initiate a nuclear first strike against another power, the New York Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 17). (Mar. 1) - U.S. B-61 nuclear bombs. The Obama administration has reportedly dismissed calls to adopt a nuclear "no first use" policy in a pending U.S. nuclear strategy review (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration photo). U.S. President Barack Obama was set to hear alternatives from Defense Secretary Robert Gates today for addressing remaining concerns over the Nuclear Posture Review, officials told the Times. The issues to be discussed included the possibility of redefining the purpose of the U.S. strategic arsenal by specifying situations in which the country might use its nuclear weapons. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other ranking Democrats have called on the president to state in the review that the "sole purpose" of the nation's nuclear weapons is to prevent a nuclear strike. Defense Department officials and a large contingent of White House staffers, though, have sought language specifying deterrence of nuclear strikes more generally as the leading reason for the arsenal (Sanger/Shanker, New York Times, Feb. 28). Obama has reportedly hoped to rule out the initial use of nuclear weapons as well as the employment of nuclear weapons against nations that possess only conventional arsenals, according to the Atlantic magazine. [Obama] [Nuclear weapons] [US global strategy] [Continuity]
• New Think and Old Weapons
  Published: February 27, 2010 Every four years the White House issues a “nuclear posture review.” That may sound like an anachronism. It isn’t. In a world where the United States and Russia still have more than 20,000 nuclear weapons — and Iran, North Korea and others have seemingly unquenchable nuclear appetites — what the United States says about its arsenal matters enormously. President Obama’s review was due to Congress in December. That has been delayed, in part because of administration infighting. The president needs to get this right. It is his chance to finally jettison cold war doctrine and bolster America’s credibility as it presses to rein in Iran, North Korea and other proliferators. [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards] [US global strategy]

• The End of Obama’s Vision of a Nuke-Free World
  Posted on Feb 16, 2010 By Scott Ritter As any student of foreign and national security policy well knows, the devil is in the details. Back in April 2009, in a speech delivered in Prague, the Czech Republic, President Barack Obama articulated his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. Since that time, however, the Obama administration has offered very little of substance to push this vision forward. When one looks past the grand statements of the president for policy implementation that supports the rhetoric, one is left empty-handed. No movement on ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). No extension of a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia (START). No freeze on the development of a new generation of American nuclear weapons. Without progress in these areas, any prospects of a new approach to global nuclear nonproliferation emerging from the May 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference are virtually zero. Perhaps the most telling indicator of failed nonproliferation policy on the part of the Obama administration is the fact that there has been no progress on the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, and in particular the ongoing controversy surrounding a proposed uranium exchange. The deal would have Iran swap a significant portion of its existing stock of 3.5 percent enriched uranium (the level needed to fuel Iran’s planned nuclear power reactors, as opposed to uranium enriched to 90 percent, which is needed for nuclear weapons) in exchange for nuclear fuel rods containing uranium enriched to 19.5 percent (the level needed to operate a U.S.-built research reactor in Tehran that produced nuclear isotopes for medical purposes). Iran is running out of fuel for this reactor, and needs a new source of fuel or else it will be forced to shut it down. As a signatory member of the NPT, Iran should have the right to acquire this fuel on the open market, subject of course to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, but the United States and Europe have held any such sale hostage to Iran’s agreeing to suspend its indigenous uranium enrichment program, which is the source of the 3.5 percent enriched uranium currently in Iran. The crux of the U.S. and European concerns rests not with Iran’s possession of 3.5 percent enriched uranium, but rather that the enrichment technique employed by Iran to produce this low-enriched uranium could be used, with some significant modifications, to manufacture high-enriched uranium (90 percent) usable in a nuclear weapon. [Disarmament] [US Global Strategy] [Continuity]
• The Obama disarmament paradox
  By Greg Mello | 4 February 2010 Last April in Prague, President Barack Obama gave a speech that many have interpreted as a commitment to significant nuclear disarmament. Now, however, the White House is requesting one of the larger increases in warhead spending history. If its request is fully funded, warhead spending would rise 10 percent in a single year, with further increases promised for the future. Los Alamos National Laboratory, the biggest target of the Obama largesse, would see a 22 percent budget increase, its largest since 1944. In particular, funding for a new plutonium "pit" factory complex there would more than double, signaling a commitment to produce new nuclear weapons a decade hence. So how is the president's budget compatible with his disarmament vision? The answer is simple: There is no evidence that Obama has, or ever had, any such vision. [Disarmament] [Spin] [Nuclear weapons] [Obama]
• Korea to Take Another Shot at Satellite Launch in May
  Seoul will attempt another launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, also known as Naro-1, in May after the first attempt to put a satellite into orbit failed on Aug. 25 last year. The KSLV-1 is Korea's first locally assembled and launched space rocket. [KSLV] [Satellite]
• Tauscher: Nuclear disarmament not the holy grail
  February 03, 2010 Speaking at the Global Zero non-proliferation summit in Paris today, Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher said that Washington and Moscow are in the "endgame" of negotiations to sign a successor strategic arms reduction treaty. She said the Obama administration's Nuclear Posture Review would be released March 1. Sources previously noted the reasons it was a bit delayed. Tauscher also reiterated comments made by Obama in a statement to the conference yesterday that seemed to indicate that while his global disarmament vision is ambitious and sincere, progress along the road is likely to be much more incremental:
  Nuclear disarmament is not the Holy Grail. It’s only worth pursuing in so far as it increases our national security [Imperialism] [Disarmament] [Inversion] [US global strategy]
• Iran Rocket 'Uses N.Korean Technology'
  A rocket launched by Iran on Wednesday was made in the North Korean style, a South Korean expert claims. Chae Yeon-seok, a former president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said Thursday the rocket engine, as publicized by the state-run IRNA news agency, seems to be the same as North Korea's Rodong missile, though Tehran claims it was made with indigenous technology.
• U.S. Warns of N.Korean Missile Technology
  The U.S. Defense Department considers North Korea's ballistic missile technology a greater danger than previously believed, a report Wednesday said. The report predicts the North will have technology to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland over the Pacific and mounting nuclear warheads by 2020. The department says it underestimated the North's capabilities when it test-fired a long-range missile in April last year and conducted its second nuclear test in May. Senior department officials were then saying that no country would buy technologies that had clearly failed the test. [Threat]
• STAKES RISE FOR U.S.-ROK NUCLEAR ENERGY TALKS
  Miles A. Pomper February 2010 - Vol. 2, No. 2 When South Korea and the United States negotiated their last nuclear cooperation agreement in the early 1970s, the talks were a low-key affair. As a poor economy lagging behind its Northern neighbor, South Korea did not have a single operating nuclear power plant let alone piles of spent nuclear fuel, and it seemed impossible that a Korean company would one day be able to design and export nuclear reactors. U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts remained in their infancy. The United States had not yet attempted to clamp down on sales of sensitive fuel cycle technology and supplied most of the world’s enriched uranium. Pyongyang and Seoul had not yet pledged not to pursue uranium enrichment or spent fuel reprocessing—which can be used for nuclear weapons or nuclear energy—and Pyongyang had yet to violate that agreement. Iran was still a U.S. ally. Not surprisingly, little political attention or concern was attached to the U.S.-South Korea nuclear pact. [Proliferation] [US SK relations]
• The President's Nuclear Vision
  We will spend what is necessary to maintain the safety, security and effectiveness of our weapons. By JOE BIDEN The United States faces no greater threat than the spread of nuclear weapons. That is why, last April in Prague, President Obama laid out a comprehensive agenda to reverse their spread, and to pursue the peace and security of a world without them. He understands that this ultimate goal will not be reached quickly. But by acting on a number of fronts, we can ensure our security, strengthen the global nonproliferation regime, and keep vulnerable nuclear material out of terrorist hands. For as long as nuclear weapons are required to defend our country and our allies, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear arsenal. The president's Prague vision is central to this administration's efforts to protect the American people—and that is why we are increasing investments in our nuclear arsenal and infrastructure in this year's budget and beyond. [Nuclear weapons] [Disarmament] [US global strategy] [Double standards]

• Obama to seek major increase in nuclear weapons funding
  Posted on Friday, January 29, 2010 By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to ask Congress to increase spending on the U.S. nuclear arsenal by more than $5 billion over the next five years as part of its strategy to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually rid the world of them (sic). [Disarmament] [Spin] [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• The ROK’s Contribution to Global Nuclear Nonproliferation
  By Kwan-Kyoo Choe January 28th, 2010 The following article is by Kwan-Kyoo Choe of the Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control, writes: “South Korea has clearly shown its commitment to every major global regime of nuclear nonproliferation. As affirmation of its policy for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula despite being surrounded by three major nuclear countries, one presumed nuclear country and one country with an advanced nuclear industry that possesses all dimensions of nuclear fuel cycle related technology, South Korea is implementing the Integrated Safeguards system of the IAEA.” [NPT]
• S.Korea Makes Some Progress in Nuclear Spat with U.S.
  Seoul and Washington on Tuesday agreed to conduct a feasibility study of pyroprocessing, a new technology for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods, before they begin talks to revise the Korea-U.S. Atomic Energy Agreement. Seoul argues it has long proved itself trustworthy enough to reprocess its own fuel rods, which are by now filling secure storage facilities to capacity due to a ban on reprocessing in the original deal. [Sovereignty]
• Philippine NPT Workshop
  Letter to Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan, President Elect, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. from Peter Wilson Secretary, NZ DPRK Society
  21st January 2010. Dear Sir, The NZ DPRK Society has noted with interest that North Korea is one of the topics proposed for discussion at the Philippine NPT Workshop. In this regard we wish to offer you some comments and ask you two questions.
• Lessons Learned From the North Korean Nuclear Crises
  By Siegfried S. Hecker January 20th, 2010 Siegfried S. Hecker, Co-Director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation, writes “Not only have we not been able to negotiate effectively, but also we have allowed Pyongyang to cross with impunity every red line we have drawn. The U.S. negotiating position has also been hampered by our inability to sustain consistent policies through transitions in administrations. Pyongyang has taken advantage of our political divisions to play a weak hand with success. Unless we learn from the lessons of North Korea, others may be able to do the same.” [US NK policy] [Inversion] [Nuclearisation] [Proliferation] [Example]
• North: Sanctions must be lifted or no 6-party talks
  Despite threat(sic), inter-Korean talks on Kaesong will take place today January 19, 2010 North Korea declared yesterday it will not return to the six-party talks unless United Nations sanctions are lifted, further upping the ante as international efforts continue to bring the North back to the denuclearization forum. “If the six-party talks are to take place again, it is necessary to seek whatever way of removing the factor of torpedoing them,” read the English statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The North also said it has no reason to oppose or delay the six-party talks, which have been stalled since December 2008, but stressed that if it participates in the talks with sanctions in place, it would not be under the terms detailed in the Sept. 19, 2005, joint statement reached after a six-party talk session. [NK US policy] [JS050919] [Inversion]
• DPRK on Reasonable Way for Sept. 19 Joint Statement
  Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- The DPRK's proposal for concluding a peace treaty is a reasonable way for comprehensively and fully implementing the September 19 Joint Statement, declared a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK in a statement issued Monday. If the joint statement is to be implemented, the spirit of mutual respect and equality, which keeps the statement vital, should not be violated and there should not be such practice as distorting the order of action, the statement said, and went on: The joint statement calls for "harmoniously" settling the issues of denuclearization, normalization of relations, energy compensation and the establishment of a peace-keeping regime. There is no agreed point that the issue of establishing a peace-keeping regime can be discussed only when denuclearization makes progress. Only the principle of "commitment for commitment" and "action for action" is laid down as the only principle for implementing the joint statement. Taking the situation of the U.S. side into consideration, the DPRK made such magnanimous efforts as keeping the discussion of denuclearization ahead of the debate on the issue of concluding a peace treaty at the six-party talks for more than six years. In 2008 the international community witnessed the blowing up of the cooling tower of the nuclear facility in Nyongbyon. The process of denuclearization made such substantial progress that the U.S. stopped applying the Trading with the Enemy Act and de-listed the DPRK as a "sponsor of terrorism". [NK US policy] [JS050919] [Satellite] [Sanctions]
• NK Project Helped KEPCO Win UAE Nuclear Bid
  By Kim Hyun-cheol Staff Reporter A controversial inter-Korean nuclear development project, which wrapped up years ago, played a key role in helping the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) win its first bid to build nuclear power plants overseas, a senior KEPCO official said. "Some still might say the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization project was a failure, but it offered us priceless experience that helped us win the United Arab Emirates (UAE) bid," Byun Jun-yeon, KEPCO's executive vice president, told The Korea Times. [KEDO] [Double standards] [Unintended consequences] [Agreed Framework]
• N.Korean Missile 8 Times More Accurate Than Predecessor
  Newly released data show that North Korea's Taepodong-2, an intercontinental ballistic missile it apparently tested in April last year, is eight times more accurate than its predecessor, the Taepodong-1, which was tested back in 1998. Japan's Mainichi Shimbun cited reports by a group of professors at Hokkaido University who collected data from more than 1,000 GPS observatory posts in Japan. The report said the results clearly point to a gradual improvement in the North's missile technology. [Satellite]
• Korea to Build Research Reactor in Jordan
  A Korean consortium has won a contract from Jordan to build an atomic reactor for research and training purposes. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said that the consortium received a letter from the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission on Thursday saying it won the international open bid.
• U.S. 'Unlikely to Let S.Korea Reprocess Nuclear Fuel'
  The U.S. is unlikely to allow South Korea to reprocess spent nuclear fuel that is piling up in secure storage facilities until a satisfactory solution to the North Korean nuclear problem is found, a report said this week. The matter is a key issue in negotiations between Seoul and Washington on the revision of the Korea-U.S. Atomic Energy Agreement, which expires in 2014. [Sovereignty]
• Korea Aims to Export 80 Nuclear Power Plants by 2030
  The government has decided to boost nuclear power-related products as the country's next major export item after automobiles, semiconductors and ships. It has set a target of exporting 80 nuclear plants by 2030 and plans to invest W500 billion (US$1=W1,126) into research and development of nuclear technology over the next seven years. Under the plan a graduate school specializing in nuclear technology will open in Korea in September of next year, and 10 other universities will be designated to offer specialized classes in that field. [Double standards]
• A Global Undertaking: Realizing the Disarmament Promise of the NPT
  Middle Powers Initiative • 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 4050 • New York, NY 10017 • Tel: +1-646-289-5170 • www.middlepowers.org Briefing paper for the Atlanta Consultation III: Fulfilling the NPT
  49. As noted earlier, the proposal for a North East Asia nuclear weapon-free zone has gained traction with the advent of the new Japanese government. Additionally, support for the proposal will come from a working group composed of parliamentarians from the Republic of Korea and Japan, established in 2009 through the Parliamentarians Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. A regional zone, and the process of creating it, could contribute to the sustainable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The DPRK would relinquish its nuclear arsenal and nuclear weapons capabilities, and receive in return binding assurances against use of nuclear weapons – long a top concern of DPRK leadership. By providing Japan and the Republic of Korea binding assurances against use of nuclear weapons, a zone could also facilitate their lessening or ending reliance on US nuclear weapons for defense. [NPT] [NGO] [US NK policy] [Bizarre]
• Middle Powers Initiative
  Mission The Middle Powers Initiative is dedicated to the worldwide reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons, in a series of well-defined stages accompanied by increasing verification and control. Overview Through the Middle Powers Initiative, eight international non-governmental organizations are able to work primarily with "middle power" governments to encourage and educate the nuclear weapons states to take immediate practical steps that reduce nuclear dangers, and commence negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons. Middle power countries are politically and economically significant, internationally respected countries that have renounced the nuclear arms race, a standing that gives them significant political credibility.
• Korea Poised to Launch 3 Satellites
  Researchers of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute lay down the 3.2 m-long Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite for assembly. /Courtesy of Korea Aerospace Research Institute Three Korean satellites will be sent into orbit this year: a weather satellite called the Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS), the Arirang-5 multi-purpose satellite which can capture images of objects on the ground even through cloud cover, and the Mugungwha-6 satellite that will handle digital broadcast transmissions. COMS will make Korea the seventh country to develop a weather satellite using its own technology. [Satellite]
• The Path Not Taken, the Way Still Open: Denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia
  By Peter Hayes and Michael Hamel-Green January 5th, 2010 Michael Hamel-Green of Victoria University and Peter Hayes of the Nautilus Institute argue that a “Korean NWFZ may be a necessary condition to achieving the full denuclearization of Korea”. As well as providing “benefits to the United States in preventing a major direct and wider proliferation threat from North Korea, and to China, Japan and South Korea in maintaining stability in the Northeast Asian Region, it would also serve to address North Korean security concerns about potential US nuclear strikes”. They point out that “the two Koreas have already negotiated a legal basis for a Korean Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in the form of the 1992 Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korea Peninsula.” This could form the basis of a NWFZ covering the peninsula. Alternately, they suggest, the ROK and Japan could create a Japan Korea NWFZ via a bilateral treaty.
• Clashes Seen Over Obama's Disarmament Goals
  Monday, Jan. 4, 2010 President Barack Obama's intention to pursue significant U.S. nuclear arsenal cutbacks has been subject to intense debate as his administration prepares to wrap up a congressionally mandated review of the nation's nuclear weapons policy, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, Oct. 26, 2009). (Jan. 4) - President Barack Obama eats a snow cone during a vacation in Hawaii last week. U.S. officials have debated how a pending U.S. nuclear weapons policy review should implement strategic arsenal reductions called for by the president (Jewel Samad/Getty Images). Elements within the Defense Department and other agencies have resisted calls to reduce the country's nuclear deterrent in size and strategic scope, said U.S. officials and independent observers with knowledge of the dispute. The White House, in turn, has pressed the Pentagon to revise the pending Nuclear Posture Review to more fully address steps toward achieving disarmament goals articulated by Obama in the Czech Republic last April (see GSN, April 6, 2009). The United States possesses around 9,400 nuclear weapons, down from approximately 10,400 such armaments in 2002, according to the Times. Obama's administration hopes that moving toward significant U.S. nuclear arms reductions would advance Washington's efforts to update the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Proposals to adopt a nuclear "no-first-use" policy or to rule out nuclear retaliation to a biological, chemical or conventional strike have emerged as key matters of contention, officials said. Some Pentagon officials have questioned arguments that such moves could encourage other nations to make similar policy adjustments. [Disarmament] [US global strategy]