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

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

• Four Satellites Expected to Be Launched in 2012
  The Korea Aerospace Research Institute said on Thursday that a multi-purpose satellite named Arirang-5 will take off from the Yasny rocket launch site in Russia next year. One of four Korean satellites planned for 2012, the Arirang-5 is the nation's first satellite to be equipped with Synthetic Aperture Radar, which allows it to produce a visual record even in cloudy weather and on dark nights, the institute added. When all four satellites successfully enter the earth's orbit, Korea will have a total of six in operation. [Satellites]
• Iran and the I.A.E.A.
  Posted by Seymour M. Hersh November 18, 2011 The first question in last Saturday night’s Republican debate on foreign policy dealt with Iran, and a newly published report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The report, which raised renewed concern about the “possible existence of undeclared nuclear facilities and material in Iran,” struck a darker tone than previous assessments. But it was carefully hedged. On the debate platform, however, any ambiguity was lost. One of the moderators said that the I.A.E.A. report had provided “additional credible evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon” and asked what various candidates, upon winning the Presidency, would do to stop Iran. Herman Cain said he would assist those who are trying to overthrow the government. Newt Gingrich said he would coördinate with the Israeli government and maximize covert operations to block the Iranian weapons program. Mitt Romney called the state of Iran’s nuclear program Obama’s “greatest failing, from a foreign-policy standpoint” and added, “Look, one thing you can know … and that is if we reëlect Barack Obama Iran will have a nuclear weapon.” The Iranian bomb was a sure thing Saturday night.
  The new report, therefore, leaves us where we’ve been since 2002, when George Bush declared Iran to be a member of the Axis of Evil—with lots of belligerent talk but no definitive evidence of a nuclear-weapons program. [Iran] [Disinformation]
• Experimental LWR Construction: FM Spokesman
  Pyongyang, November 30 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK released the following statement Wednesday on the DPRK's just nuclear activities for peaceful purposes: The peaceful use of nuclear energy is the legitimate right of a sovereign state recognized by international law. It also serves as the only way for solving the acute electricity problem in the DPRK as it has vast nuclear energy resources. The DPRK made up its mind to build its own light water reactor according to its economic development strategy given that there was no prospect for getting LWRs whose delivery was promised from outside. [LWR]
• N.Korea 'Progressing Apace' on Uranium Enrichment
  North Korea says it is making progress in producing enriched uranium for its light-water nuclear reactor, raising fresh concerns that the controversial project could be used to develop atomic weapons. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday that the country's "experimental" uranium enrichment program is "progressing apace." [LWR]
• Space Is Common Wealth: KCNA White Paper
  Pyongyang, November 29 (KCNA) -- The Korean Central News Agency released white paper "Space Is Common Wealth of Humankind" Monday. Referring to the global trend for space development, the white paper disclosed the U.S. ambition for space monopolization aimed at world domination. It said: Different countries and nations regard it as their strategic goals to advance into vast space, which serves as a powerful engine propelling the future development of science and technology as well as economy.
• North Korea claims nuclear plant progress
  Pyongyang says it has made rapid advances in building a light-water reactor and enriching uranium Associated Press in Seoul guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 November 2011 North Korea's nuclear complex in Yongbyon, where a light-water reactor is being built. Photograph: Gao Haorong/AP North Korea says it is making rapid progress on work to enrich uranium and build a light-water nuclear power plant, increasing worries that the country is developing another way to make atomic weapons. Pyongyang's foreign ministry said in a statement that the construction of an experimental light-water reactor and low enriched uranium were "progressing apace". [LWR]

• N.Korea 'Helped Syria Build Missile Factory'
  Syria built a secret missile assembly line with the help of North Korea and Iran, German daily Die Welt claimed last Friday. The daily said North Korea provided the technology to manufacture maraging steel, which is a restricted material under the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Missile Technology Control Regime. It can be used for missile skins and centrifuges critical in uranium enrichment.
• 40% of Missiles in Developing World Came from N.Korea
  Forty percent of ballistic missiles developing nations have imported since 1987 came from North Korea, VOA reported Thursday. The claim comes in a report titled "The Evolution of North Korea's Ballistic Missile Market" by Joshua Pollack, a nuclear proliferation expert at the U.S. Science Applications International Corporation, who says, "More than 40 percent of the roughly 1,200 theater ballistic missile systems supplied to the developing world between 1987 and 2009 came from North Korea." During this period Iran, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Yemen, the U.A.E., and Pakistan imported missiles from the North. The North topped the list of ballistic missile suppliers, followed by Russia (400) and China (270). But the North's missile export began declining rapidly in 1994.
• 2012 Nuclear Security Summit: The Korean Twist
  By Duyeon Kim The March 2012 Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in Seoul, Korea comes at a critical juncture when the world continues to experience a growing number of terrorist attacks leading to mounting concerns about the threat of nuclear terrorism. Nightmare scenarios include vulnerable nuclear materials
• Ex-Inspector Rejects IAEA Iran Bomb Test Chamber Claim
  by GARETH PORTER A former inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repudiated its major new claim that Iran built an explosives chamber to test components of a nuclear weapon and carry out a simulated nuclear explosion. The IAEA claim that a foreign scientist – identified in news reports as Vyacheslav Danilenko – had been involved in building the alleged containment chamber has now been denied firmly by Danilenko himself in an interview with Radio Free Europe published Friday. The latest report by the IAEA cited “information provided by Member States” that Iran had constructed “a large explosives containment vessel in which to conduct hydrodynamic experiments” – meaning simulated explosions of nuclear weapons – in its Parchin military complex in 2000. The report said it had “confirmed” that a “large cylindrical object” housed at the same complex had been “designed to contain the detonation of up to 70 kilograms of high explosives”. That amount of explosives, it said, would be “appropriate” for testing a detonation system to trigger a nuclear weapon. But former IAEA inspector Robert Kelley has denounced the agency’s claims about such a containment chamber as “highly misleading”. [IAEA] [Iran] [Disinformation] [UNUS]
• KCNA Commentary on Rumor about "Nuclear Cooperation"
  Pyongyang, November 18 (KCNA) -- Some dishonest forces are deliberately spreading the rumor that the DPRK is helping Iran in manufacturing nuclear weapons. Some time ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), instigated by the U.S. and other Western countries, floated the rumor about "nuclear cooperation" between the DPRK and Iran. Then the hostile forces have spread fabricated data to make this rumor sound plausible. They even cited the outdated facts, rejected by the international community in the past, and talked nonsense that "hundreds of north Korean technicians, who took part in manufacturing nukes and missiles, have visited Iran on the shift via a third country to offer technological assistance." The U.S.-led hostile forces have always found fault with the peaceful nuclear activities of those countries going against their grain and with their cooperation in the nuclear field. What the forces seek in spreading the rumor about the DPRK's "nuclear cooperation", which is nonexistent, while escalating the offensive against Iran is to brand the DPRK as a "nuclear criminal" by linking it with the nuclear issue of Iran. The story about "nuclear cooperation" is part of the hostile forces' trite slandering and deceptive tricks intended to put pressure on the DPRK. There is no creditability in it.
• Concern grows over new N. Korean reactor
  By Kim Young-jin Concern is growing over North Korea’s construction of a new nuclear reactor after satellite imagery revealed rapid progress on the project that Pyongyang claims will soon be operational. But an official here said the work underway to build the experimental light water reactor at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex didn’t necessarily mean that Pyongyang had the capability to run it. [LWR]
• Extraterritorial Jurisdiction over Dual Use Nuclear Commodity Smuggling and International Law
  By Anthony J. Colangelo November 15, 2011 This is a report from the Nautilus Institute workshop “Cooperation to Control Non-State Nuclear Proliferation: Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction and UN Resolutions 1540 and 1373” held on April 4th and 5th in Washington DC with the Stanley Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This workshop explored the theoretical options and practical pathways to extend states' control over non-state actor nuclear proliferation through the use of extra-territorial jurisdiction and international legal cooperation. Anthony J. Colangelo, Assistant Professor of Law, SMU Dedman School of Law, states that in light of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540, the main legal obstacles to establishing extraterritorial and, ultimately, “universal" jurisdiction over dual use nuclear commodities smuggling boil down to a problem of legality. Colangelo shows that the concept of geographic legality offers a useful lens through which to examine the potential for extraterritorial jurisdiction over smuggling of dual use nuclear items. This report frames the major legal obstacles to establishing such jurisdiction, and, as a result, also reveals mechanisms for surmounting or breaking down those obstacles. Specifically, it clarifies the roles of national law, positive international law (treaties), and customary international law, along with key sovereignty and individual rights components, to establishing expansive and ultimately universal jurisdiction over dual use nuclear commodities smuggling anywhere in the world. [Proliferation] [Imperialism] [Extraterritoriality]
• North Korea Makes Significant Progress in Building New Experimental Light Water Reactor (ELWR)
  By 38 North This article is a “38 North” exclusive in cooperation with DigitalGlobe’s Analysis Center and with contributions by Robert Kelley and Mehdi Sarram. This is the first of a new satellite imagery analysis feature, focusing on areas of security and economic interest. SUMMARY A year after disclosing the project, North Korea recently announced “the day is near at hand” when it will begin operating its new light water reactor “based on domestic resources and technology.” Given past usage of this formulation by Pyongyang, the North’s statement probably means the beginning of operations may still be several years away. 38 North’s analysis of commercial satellite photography confirms that significant progress has been made in building the reactor over the past year. Depending on how quickly the North Koreans can load heavy components into the reactor building, the plant may be externally complete in 6-12 months. However, operations are still unlikely to begin for another 2-3 years. Pyongyang still needs to complete construction, finish loading machinery and equipment, install electronics in the control room and produce fuel assemblies for the reactor. [LWR]
• 'Hundreds of N.Koreans' Working at Iran Nuke Facilities
  North Korea has dispatched a small army of engineers to Iran's nuclear and missile facilities, a diplomat claimed Sunday. The news comes amid growing pressure on Iran from the international community after the International Atomic Energy Agency warned of its nuclear weapons development. "Hundreds of North Korean scientists and engineers are working at about 10 nuclear and missile facilities in Iran, including Natanz," the source said. "They are apparently rotated every six months." He said the North Koreans enter Iran clandestinely via third countries like Russia and China.
• Iran denies nuclear cooperation with NK
  The Iranian Embassy in Seoul claimed Tehran has indigenous technology for a peaceful nuclear program, saying it is opposed to the development of nuclear weapons. "Iran's nuclear technology is completely domestically made, thus no foreign experts are needed," the embassy said in an e-mail statement to Yonhap News Agency. The statement came one day after Yonhap reported that hundreds of North Korean nuclear and missile experts have been collaborating with Iranian counterparts in more than 10 locations across the Islamic state. Yonhap quoted a diplomatic source with access to intelligence on the years-long weapons collaboration between Pyongyang and Tehran. The source has a track record of accurate information.
• N. Korea makes fast progress on construction of nuclear plant
  By Chico Harlan, Tuesday, November 15, 2:31 PM TOKYO — North Korea has made rapid progress on the construction of a new nuclear reactor, with work nearly complete on the outside walls of the reactor building, according to an analysis of recent satellite images. Because the reactor building hasn’t yet been loaded with sensitive nuclear equipment, the plant might not be operational for two or three more years, one analyst said. But the accelerated pace of construction, coming one year after North Korea disclosed the plant publicly, lends credence to Pyongyang’s claim that it has the materials and know-how to build nuclear plants on its own. It is less clear, though, whether North Korea wants the plant as a power source or as a decoy for its weapons program. With a completed light-water reactor, North Korea would pose the same problem as Iran: Its officials can claim that their uranium-enrichment program is being used to fuel the reactor, not to produce weapons-grade uranium for nuclear bombs. [LWR]
• Iran, N.Korea 'Run Joint Nuclear Research Center'
  A Japanese daily claims that Iran and North Korea run a joint nuclear research center to carry out computer simulations of nuclear tests. Japan's Sankei Shimbun on Thursday said Iran has three secret research centers across the country. And a dozen North Korean researchers and experts have visited the facilities this year to share information about nuclear technology. The report goes on to say that the two countries are running the tests to develop starting devices for nuclear bombs. Iran and North Korea are both under international sanctions due to their uranium enrichment activities. Arirang News / Nov. 11, 2011 12:52 KST [Double standards]
• U.S. Hangs Back as Inspectors Prepare Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program
  By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD Published: November 6, 2011 WASHINGTON — Details leaking out about an imminent report by United Nations weapons inspectors suggest they have the strongest evidence yet that Iran has worked in recent years on a kind of sophisticated explosives technology that is primarily used to trigger a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials who have been briefed on the intelligence. But the case is hardly conclusive. Iran’s restrictions on inspectors have muddied the picture. And however suggestive the evidence about what the International Atomic Energy Agency calls “possible military dimensions” of Iran’s program turns out to be, the only sure bet is that the mix of sleuthing, logic and intuition by nuclear investigators will be endlessly compared with the American intelligence agencies’ huge mistakes in Iraq in 2003. [Evidence] [Disinformation] [UNUS]
• IAEA report on Iran set to raise Middle East tension
  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA | Sun Nov 6, 2011 8:18am EST VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog is expected this week to issue its most detailed report yet on research in Iran seen as geared to developing atomic bombs, heightening international suspicions of Tehran's agenda and stoking Middle East tensions. Western powers are likely to seize on the International Atomic Energy Agency document, which has been preceded by media speculation in Israel of military strikes against Iranian nuclear sites, to press for more sanctions on the oil producer. But Russia and China fear the publication now of the IAEA's findings could hurt any chance of diplomacy resolving the long-running nuclear row and they have lobbied against it, signaling opposition to any new punitive U.N. measures against Iran. Iran rejects allegations of atomic weapons ambitions, saying its nuclear program is aimed at producing electricity. The report is tentatively scheduled to be submitted to IAEA member states on November 9 before a quarterly meeting the following week of the agency's 35-nation board of governors in Vienna. It "will be followed by a U.S.-European Union push for harsher sanctions against Iran at the U.N. Security Council, where Western powers will meet stiff resistance from Russia and China," said Trita Parsi, an expert on U.S.-Iran relations. [UNUS] [IAEA] [Iran]
• China's Space Exploration Highlights Korea's Defunct Program
  China succeeded in its first space docking experiment on Thursday by linking the unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou-8 with the Tiangong-1 space lab module. As a result, it became the third country after the U.S. and Russia to succeed in a space docking using its own technology. China demonstrated its precision technology by maneuvering, via remote control, two spacecraft 343 km above the Earth within an 18 cm margin of error. The feat has catapulted China into the ranks of the world's powerhouses in space research. [China rising] [Aerospace] [Satellite]
• Legal Cooperation to Control Non-State Nuclear proliferation: Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction and UN Resolutions 1540 and 1373
  Summary Report of a Workshop April 3-4, 2011 Washington DC Nautilus Institute In cooperation with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Stanley Foundation, Center for International Trade and Security, University of Georgia Elliott School, George Washington University October 2011 [Proliferation] [NSA]
• AP Exclusive: UN investigators probe signs Syria aided by A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling network
  By Associated Press, Published: November 1 WASHINGTON — U.N. investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could make nuclear arms. The buildings in northwest Syria closely match the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Moammar Gadhafi was trying to build nuclear weapons under Khan’s guidance, officials told The Associated Press. The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency also has obtained correspondence between Khan and a Syrian government official, Muhidin Issa, who proposed scientific cooperation and a visit to Khan’s laboratories following Pakistan’s successful nuclear test in 1998. [UNUS] [Evidence]

• Korea, Russia Agree on Fresh Rocket Launch Attempt
  Seoul and Moscow agreed to attempt another launch of the Korean-made space rocket, probably no later than September next year. Two previous launches of the rocket, dubbed Naro, in August 2009 and June last year failed. A joint review board met in Seoul on Tuesday and Wednesday to find out what caused the failure of the second launch, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said on Thursday. [KSLV] [Satellite]
• N.Korea 'Has New Uranium Enrichment Facility'
  North Korea built a new underground uranium enrichment facility in Tongchang, North Pyongan Province in 2006, separately from the existing one at Yongbyon in the same province, Liberty Forward Party lawmaker Park Sun-young claimed Wednesday. Park said she had the information from a North Korean Army lieutenant colonel she only identified as Lee (52), who she claimed supervised security when the regime built the new facility. "Construction began in 2001 and was completed in 2006," Park said. "After a test run in 2007, it began extracting enriched uranium in 2009." "The Yongbyon facility is an empty structure that was built in preparation for an international inspection, but the new facility in Tongchang is the real uranium enrichment facility," she said. She explained that this is a different place again from the Tongchang-ri missile test range in the same province. A glass factory near the Tongchang nuclear facility which leader Kim Jong-il and his son Jong-un for mysterious reasons visited three times last December and January, in fact produces nuclear weapons delivery vehicles, she claimed. "There's a uranium refinery under Mt. Chonma near the factory," she added. Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik declined to comment, saying the matter "is an intelligence concern."
• Launch of New Korean Satellite Put Off Again
  The launch of the multi-purpose satellite Arirang 5 has been postponed indefinitely after notice from Russia. According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology on Wednesday, the decision was caused by internal circumstances facing the Russian government and Cosmotrust, the Russian launch service company. That means the satellite will probably not be launched this year because the date needs to be fixed two to three months in advance. Cho Yul-lae, the chief of the ministry's research and development policy, said, "The Arirang 5, which was introduced to the press last month, has not even been shipped yet." The Arirang 5 was originally expected to be launched on the Dnepr rocket, a converted intercontinental ballistic missile, from the Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia in late August. But the launch was postponed until around November because of a backlog. It is its fourth postponement over the past year. The Arirang 5 will be tasked with observing Earth, traveling in an orbit at an altitude of 550 km above Earth 15 times a day for five years after launch. [Satellite]
• Chances for six-party talks this year improved: government source
  The second round of inter-Korean talks significantly boosted the possibility of holding the talks this year, the source said By Son Won-je, Staff Writer Meeting with journalists Sunday, the source said, “Following the second round of inter-Korean denuclearization talks in Beijing on Sept. 21, we now anticipate the possibility of finding common ground between Seoul, Washington, and Pyongyang on ‘preliminary steps toward denuclearization.’” [US NK negotiations] [Easing]
• Asahi: N. Korea Asked S. Korea to Buy Unused Nuclear Fuel Rods
  North Korea reportedly asked South Korea to purchase its unused nuclear fuel rods during last week's inter-Korean denuclearization talks held in Beijing. Citing sources in Seoul, Japan's Asahi Shimbun says the North's top nuclear envoy Ri Yong-ho suggested the South buy 14,800 rods containing over 1-hundred tons of uranium, in return for Pyeongyang suspending its uranium enrichment which is a precondition to the resumption of the six-party talks. Seoul, however, turned down the proposal as it has agreed with the US and Japan to not negotiate the demands. In 2009, the South Korean government considered buying 10 million US dollars worth of the North's unspent nuclear fuel rods up until Pyeongyang's second nuclear test that year. [US NK negotiations] [US objectives] [Preconditions]
• Pyongyang asks Seoul to buy fuel rods
  By YOSHIHIRO MAKINO / Correspondent SEOUL -- North Korea asked South Korea to purchase its unused nuclear fuel rods if it accepts conditions for the resumption of six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear development program, sources said. South Korea declined the request, but officials here regard the overture as a sign that North Korea is willing to discuss terms for resuming the long-stalled talks. [US NK negotiations] [US objectives] [Preconditions]
• The Sixth Anniversary of the September 19 Joint Statement: We Cannot Delay the Resumption of the Six-Party Talks Anymore
  By Korea Peace Forum October 4, 2011 Korea Peace Forum, a non-governmental forum that seeks to build peace in the Korean Peninsula, writes “it is now time to gather our power and wisdom to develop the six-party talks into an opportunity for co-prosperity and peace, not only on the Korean Peninsula, but also in Northeast Asia. We should not forget that this is one of the most important historical issues to be solved by the new South Korean government in 2013.” [Six Party Talks] [SK NK policy] [JS050919]
• South Korea on the Fence: Nukes or No Nukes?
  By Byong Chul Lee South Korea faces a critical decision: whether or not to go nuclear, a decision that has US defense and diplomatic elites on edge. Talk of a nuclear option was anathema in South Korea only a decade ago. Official expression of a desire for nuclear weapons development has, until now, been politically and diplomatically taboo. To date, South Korean confidence in the US nuclear umbrella and the stationing of US military forces on ROK territory have played a large role in reinforcing that taboo. [Nuclearisation]
• '3rd nuke test looms if talks fail'
  By Kim Young-jin North Korea could conduct a long-range missile or third nuclear test if ongoing talks with South Korea and the United States fall through, a presidential advisor warned Friday, raising stakes for resumption of denuclearization talks. “If (the talks) turn out to be a failure, I think North Korea can be tempted to take one of these options, believing it does not have any chance to gain economic aid,” Kim Tae-hyo, Cheong Wa Dae’s deputy national security advisor said at a defense forum in Seoul. “It is up to North Korea whether they will choose both or one of these provocative actions.”

• Unprecedented Nuclear Strikes of the Invincible Army: A Realistic Assessment of North Korea’s Operational Nuclear Capability
  By Peter Hayes and Scott Bruce September 22, 2011 This report was adapted from “Unprecedented Nuclear Strikes: Translating North Korea’s Nuclear Threats into Constrained Operational Reality,” in Gregory Moore, ed, North Korean Nuclear Operationality: Implications for Regional Security and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime (forthcoming, Stanford University Press). [Nuclear weapons] [Military balance]
• U.S. Can’t Track Tons of Weapons-Grade Uranium, Plutonium
  By Noah Shachtman September 16, 2011 | 6:30 am President Obama has repeatedly said his top counterterrorism goal is to prevent terrorists from acquiring the building blocks to make nuclear or “dirty” bombs. In April of 2009, Obama announced a new international effort to “secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years.” Since then, the Department of Energy has dispatched scientists around the globe to collect hundreds of pounds of the stuff. But according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), issued late last Friday afternoon to little fanfare, thousands of pounds of highly-enriched uranium and separated plutonium remain. American officials may never get a chance to ensure its security. That’s because the U.S. can’t track or fully account for 5,900 pounds of “weapons usable” nuclear material that it once shipped overseas. [Proliferation] [Nuclear terrorism]
• New A.Q. Khan Documents Suggest Pakistan Spread Nuclear Weapon Technology
  By Micah Morrison Published September 16, 2011 | FoxNews.com See Fox news Programme" Fox News Reporting: Iran's Nuclear Secrets," airing on 18 September at 9 p.m. ET Documents obtained by Fox News suggest that for decades Pakistan spread nuclear weapon technology around the globe in exchange for cash, political influence and help with its own atomic bomb program. Among those on the other side of the deals: China, Iran, North Korea and Libya.
• Scientist who visited North Korea nuke sites says Pyongyang may seek to launch 3rd atomic test
  By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, September 9, 6:51 PM VIENNA — A U.S. scientist who visited a secret North Korean nuclear site last year says Pyongyang may seek to launch a third atomic test to enable it to develop a small fissile warhead that can be carried by a missile. Siegfried Hecker — who first revealed news of a previously clandestine North Korean uranium enrichment plant — also expanded on details of that facility on Friday. He said it was more advanced than Iran’s enrichment operation, and could be re-engineered to turn out enough fissile material to make two nuclear weapons a year. ( no / Associated Press ) - Siegfried S. Hecker, a professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University delivers a speech during a seminar presented by the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation on “North Korea: Reactors Bombs and People” in Vienna, Austria, on Friday, Sept. 9, 2011. The U .S. scientist who visited a secret North Korean nuclear site last year says Pyongyang may launch a third test atomic explosion to be able to develop a missile warhead. Sigfried Hecker says North Korea’s second test in 2009 was necessary because their first attempt in 2006”didn’t work well.” He said Friday that if Pyongyang wants to prove that it can develop a small, technically advanced missile warhead “they would need to have one more nuclear test.” Hecker last year was invited to North Korea where he was shown a modern uranium enrichment plant that the North had previously denied possessing. Highly enriched uranium can be used for fissile warhead material. .The North tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009 based on plutonium — like enriched uranium, a potential source of fissile warhead material. [Test]
• A ‘Black Hole’ in the Global Nonproliferation Regime: the Case of Taiwan
  By Togzhan Kassenova September 8, 2011 Togzhan Kassenova, an Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Nuclear Policy Program, analyzes Taiwan's unique position within the international security system and the global nonproliferation regime. Despite being an “outsider” in relation to relevant international frameworks, Taiwan is a major transit and transshipment hub well-positioned in the supply and consumption chain of high-tech goods and boasts a highly-developed civilian nuclear program. As a result, Kassenova asserts that "Taiwain is the only place that presents such high stakes for the global nonproliferation system." [Taiwan] [Proliferation]
• Exclusive: North Korea Steps Up Aid To Iran On Nuclear Program
  Western intelligence sources say that this past spring, North Korea passed a highly specialized computer program on to the Ministry of Defense in Tehran that could give Iran crucial know-how for making nuclear weapons. By Paul-Anton Krüger SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG/Worldcrunch North Korea has markedly extended its arms cooperation with Iran since the start of 2011, according to information received by Süddeutsche Zeitung from Western secret service sources. Pyongyang passed on to the Ministry of Defense in Tehran a highly specialized computer program that simulates neutron flows, say the sources. Such information is vital both for the construction of reactors, as well as the development of nuclear warheads. In addition, North Korean scientists are supposed to have taught their Iranian counterparts how to use the software. This could give Iran crucial know-how for making nuclear weapons. [Iran] [Disinformation]
• North Korea-Iran Nuclear Cooperation
  Interviewee: Jeffrey Lewis, Director, East Asia Nonproliferation Program, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies Interviewer: Jayshree Bajoria, Senior Staff Writer, CFR.org December 14, 2010 The release of U.S. diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks and North Korea's revelations about its uranium enrichment program have raised concerns about North Korea's proliferation activities, especially to Iran. "Most illicit nuclear programs depend very heavily on procurement networks, and North Korea has invested heavily in these supply networks ," says Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. “I worry that North Korea's procurement network will be open for business with other countries," he says
• N. Korea faces constant pressure over enrichment program: ministry
  SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- South Korea said Monday it will keep pressing North Korea to address its uranium enrichment program that could provide the communist regime with new material to make atomic weapons, if the two sides hold a second round of bilateral nuclear talks. The nuclear envoys of the two Koreas met in Indonesia for the first time in more than two years in late July, setting the tone for renewed diplomatic efforts to reopen the stalled six-party talks, which also involve the U.S., China, Japan and Russia. The North's uranium program is among the key hurdles to the resumption of the six-party dialogue, which has been stalled since late 2008. [Uranium]

• A Presidential Policy Directive for a new nuclear path
  BY ROBERT S. NORRIS AND HANS M. KRISTENSEN | 10 AUGUST 2011 The implementation of President Obama's Nuclear Posture Review is now occurring, out of public view but with potentially enormous implications, depending on the outcome. The Nuclear Posture Review was mandated by Congress to establish US nuclear policy, strategy, capabilities and forces for the next five to 10 years. In theory, it was intended to further President Obama's Prague agenda of reducing nuclear dangers and to work toward a world without nuclear weapons, but with global security. The document was made public in April 2010 (in a significant change from previous such reviews, there was no classified version) and had five key objectives: 1) Prevent nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. 2) Reduce the role of nuclear weapons. 3) Maintain strategic deterrence and stability at reduced nuclear force levels. 4) Strengthen regional deterrence and reassure US allies and partners. 5) Sustain a safe, secure, and effective nuclear arsenal. The United States has developed a complex process of implementing policy that guides how the military should plan for the use of nuclear weapons. [US global policy] [Nuclear weapons]
• Laser Advances in Nuclear Fuel Stir Terror Fear
  By WILLIAM J. BROAD Scientists have long sought easier ways to make the costly material known as enriched uranium — the fuel of nuclear reactors and bombs, now produced only in giant industrial plants. One idea, a half-century old, has been to do it with nothing more substantial than lasers and their rays of concentrated light. This futuristic approach has always proved too expensive and difficult for anything but laboratory experimentation. Until now. In a little-known effort, General Electric has successfully tested laser enrichment for two years and is seeking federal permission to build a $1 billion plant that would make reactor fuel by the ton. That might be good news for the nuclear industry. But critics fear that if the work succeeds and the secret gets out, rogue states and terrorists could make bomb fuel in much smaller plants that are difficult to detect. [HEU] [Double standards]
• U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Holds Fast to Status Quo
  By Haider Rizvi UNITED NATIONS, Aug 17, 2011 (IPS) - The United States is likely to maintain and sustain its huge arsenal of nuclear weapons for many years to come, even though President Barack Obama has repeatedly stressed that he stands for nuclear disarmament and global peace, non-proliferation experts believe. "President Obama is very assertive. But it's not clear how much [more] assertive he chooses to be," said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project with the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a policy think tank based in Washington that monitors U.S. nuclear policy on ethical grounds. In an analytical report prepared for FAS last week, Kristensen and his colleague, Robert Norris, warned that President Obama might fail to implement his agenda on nuclear disarmament due to lack of cooperation by the civil and military bureaucracy in Washington. [US global strategy] [Nuclear weapons] [Spin] [Disarmament]
• DPRK to resume six-party talks without preconditions
  (philstar.com) Updated August 01, 2011 10:50 AM Comments (0) PYONGYANG (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) declared on Monday that it would resume the six-party talks on its nuclear issue without preconditions, the official KCNA news agency reported. "The DPRK remains unchanged in its stand to resume the six-party talks without preconditions at an early date and comprehensively implement the September 19 joint statement on the principle of simultaneous action," a spokesman of the DPRK Foreign Ministry told the KCNA. The spokesman was speaking after the recent DPRK-U.S. high-level talks held in New York, the United States, on July 28-29.
• North Korea and a Nuclear Ban
  May 31st, 2011 Of all states, North Korea as it presently exists and is governed is probably seen by many other states as the most potentially problematic with respect to its ongoing compliance with a nuclear weapons ban. This, of course, is assuming North Korea joined a nuclear ban treaty [convention] along with all other states—and incentives for North Korea to do so would be primarily freedom from the nuclear threat or perceived threat from another state or states, plus widespread praise for the decision to join. At present, North Korea often points to the vast U.S. arsenal as the prime peril and justification for North Korea’s own, relatively very small arsenal; but such rationale by any state would vanish under worldwide nuclear weapons abolition. [Agreed Framework] [HEU]
• N.Korea 'to Conduct 3rd Nuke Test Next Year'
  North Korea will conduct "another nuclear weapons test within 12 months," a senior U.S. government official predicted based on intelligence analysis in Washington, the Australian reported Tuesday. [Test] [Intelligence]

• Non-State Actors, Nuclear Next Use, and Deterrence
  By Patrick Morgan July 12, 2011
  In this report, Patrick Morgan, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, assesses the relevance and effectiveness of international deterrence in preventing non-state actors from undertaking nuclear-proliferation related activities. His report explores how traditional concepts of deterrence have changed with the emergence of a framework of mandated state efforts and legal regimes, including the possible application of universal jurisdiction, to address threats of nuclear terrorism or other problems associated with non-state actors. [NSA] [Nuclear terrorism] [Extraterritoriality]
• N.Korea 'Bribed Pakistan Brass with $3.5 Million for Nuke Tech'
  North Korea bribed Pakistani officials with US$3.5 million in cash and jewelry in 1998 to obtain nuclear technology, the "father" of Pakistan's nuclear program Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan claims. Khan released a copy of a letter written to him by then North Korean Workers Party Secretary for the munitions industry Jon Byong-ho, the Washington Post reported Thursday. Jon is now chief of the Politburo. [Pakistan]
• U.S. plays down new report on N. Korea-Pakistan nuke ties
  Following a fresh news report of alleged nuclear cooperation between North Korea and Pakistan, senior U.S. officials tried Thursday to downplay the diplomatic impact on already shaky relations with Islamabad. “I don’t have anything to say beyond the fact that we take, obviously, North Korea’s nuclear program, you know, very seriously,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said, when asked about a Washington Post report.
• North Korea can make ICBMs: Russian expert
  Yuri Solomonov, one of Russia’s leading experts on missile technology, has warned both the Russian Defense Ministry and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that North Korea has already secured basic technology to construct functional Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Solomonov claimed that North Korea can already make ICBMs had they access to necessary finances to proceed with such a program. As a participant in Russian ICBM development in the 1970s and 1980s, Solomonov is regarded as the most prominent Russian missile technology expert. [Military balance]
• Pakistan’s nuclear-bomb maker says North Korea paid bribes for know-how
  By R. Jeffrey Smith, Published: July 7 The founder of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb program asserts that the government of North Korea bribed top military officials in Islamabad to obtain access to sensitive nuclear technology in the late 1990s. Abdul Qadeer Khan has made available documents that he says support his claim that he personally transferred more than $3 million in payments by North Korea to senior officers in the Pakistani military, which he says subsequently approved his sharing of technical know-how and equipment with North Korean scientists. Khan also has released what he says is a copy of a North Korean official’s 1998 letter to him, written in English, that spells out details of the clandestine deal.
• For the Love of Money
  From whiskey to nuclear secrets, North Korea plays a remarkably entrepreneurial role in international affairs for a Communist regime. BY SIMON HENDERSON | JULY 7, 2011 Pakistan and North Korea have been involved for decades in a secretive trade: The Pakistani military acquired missiles from North Korea, and Pyongyang, as part of the deal, gained access to Pakistan's uranium enrichment centrifuges. Now, new details have emerged that reveal how this relationship was smoothed by money. The Washington Post published revelations today, attributed to me, that top-level North Korean officials bribed Pakistani military officials with over $3 million in exchange for the nuclear technology. This disclosure offers fresh details about how nuclear weapon secrets have proliferated across the globe -- and provides a unique insight into the dangerous consequences of the hermit kingdom's "entrepreneurial" role in world affairs. [Media][AfPak] [Proliferation]

• The Fukushima Disaster Opens New Prospects for Cooperation in Northeast Asia
  By James Goodby & Markku Heiskanen June 28, 2011 James Goodby, former American ambassador to Finland and Markku Heiskanen, former Finnish diplomat and Senior Associate of The Asia Institute in Daejeon, South Korea, write that "[t]he nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has dramatically demonstrated the interdependence between the countries of Northeast Asia. This crisis poses a palpable threat to Northeast Asia, and is not an issue of military conflict, but rather of environmental pollution, as radioactive materials spread across national frontiers. It is an example of a number of transnational issues that can be addressed effectively only through cooperative actions."
• N.Korea 'Getting Ready to Build a Nuclear Warhead'
  North Korean mid-range ballistic missiles are shown in a parade marking the 65th anniversary of the Workers Party on Oct. 10, 2010. /AP-Yonhap North Korea probably has "a rudimentary design for a nuclear warhead for a ballistic missile," a British (sic) expert claims. Joseph Bermudez, an analyst for Jane's Information Group and editor of the KPA Journal, told Radio Australia last Friday, "From what we can tell, North Korea, since it began its ballistic missile program, has desired to put a nuclear warhead on it." The North has not tested a missile with a nuclear warhead on it, but Bermudez was at any rate skeptical whether it would work. North Korea is "on the threshold of conducting a successful space launch of a satellite," Bermudez said, "If they do develop an ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile], it would allow them to strike at the continent of the United States eventually. Would it be militarily significant? Probably not, in the sense that Western powers think so, but politically it would be a tremendous game change." [MISCOM][Intelligence]
• North Korea’s Nuclear Enrichment: Capabilities and Consequences
  By Olli Heinonen Background North Korea’s pursuit of uranium enrichment should not, and has not, come as a surprise. The pre-eminence of Juche, the political thesis of Kim Il Sung, stresses independence from great powers, a strong military posture, and reliance on national resources. Faced with an impoverished economy, political isolation from the world, and rich uranium deposits, nuclear power—both civilian as well as military—fulfills all three purposes. History and hindsight have shown a consistency in North Korea’s efforts to develop its own nuclear capability. One of the first steps North Korea took was to assemble a strong national cadre of nuclear technicians and scientists. In 1955, North Korea established its Atomic Energy Research Institute. In 1959, it signed an agreement with the Soviet Union to train North Korean personnel in nuclear related disciplines. The Soviets also helped the North Koreans establish a nuclear research center and built a 2 MW IRT nuclear research reactor at Yongbyon, which began operation in 1969.
• A Substitute for Broad Extraterritoriality: Recognizing an Experienced Player Armed with Modernized Tools
  By Larry L. Burton June 23, 2011 [Proliferation]
• Threat Convergence and International Cooperation: Indicators and Challenges
  By Rita Grossman-Vermaas June 16, 2011 This is a paper from the Nautilus Institute workshop “Cooperation to Control Non-State Nuclear Proliferation: Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction and UN Resolutions 1540 and 1373” held on April 4th and 5th in Washington DC with the Stanley Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This workshop explored the theoretical options and practical pathways to extend states' control over non-state actor nuclear proliferation through the use of extra-territorial jurisdiction and international legal cooperation. Rita Grossman-Vermaas, Senior International Policy Advisor in the Persistent Surveillance Division at Logos Technologies, provides an overview of what threat convergence is and the opportunities for international cooperation to mitigate the security challenges it presents. Since the end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear terrorism has loomed large on the minds of arms controllers and policymakers. But, to date – 20 years later- there is neither a coherent nor comprehensive approach to the challenges of nuclear trafficking and terrorism. Part of the difficulty is getting a handle on the numerous pathways through which nuclear trafficking could occur, and thinking through how to comprehensively deal with them. Nevertheless, such an exercise is critical to deterring and preventing a nuclear event. One way to begin the process is to have a better understanding of the environments in which nuclear trafficking, proliferation, and terrorism could be facilitated. Many potential areas of concern are in regions that are fragile or may be in active conflict. Thus, there must be a recognition, and incorporation into the nonproliferation thinking, of the role of fragile environments in facilitating or enabling nuclear trafficking and proliferation. [Nuclear terrorism]
• N.Korea 'Successfully Test Fired Short-Range Missile'
  North Korea's test launch of a KN-06 surface-to-air missile into the West Sea early this month appears to have been successful, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said at a hearing by the National Assembly's Defense Committee on Monday.
• SKorean defense chief believes North may have achieved technology to mount nuclear warhead
  By Associated Press, Published: June 13 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea may be able to load a nuclear warhead atop a missile, though South Korea has no substantive evidence the North has the technology to do it, Seoul’s defense chief said Monday. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and is thought to have enough plutonium for at least a half-dozen weapons. But experts doubt whether the North has mastered the miniaturization technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile. .Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a parliamentary committee there is a “possibility” the North may have developed such a miniaturized nuclear warhead. “I judge it’s time for it to have succeeded in miniaturization,” Kim said, according to a National Assembly-run webcast. “Considerable time has passed (since the two nuclear tests). Looking at other countries’ cases, there is a possibility the North may have succeeded.” Kim, who was answering a lawmaker’s question, said his belief is just an “assumption” and South Korea has not acquired any intelligence supporting it. [Intelligence]
• More nuclear facilities visible at N.Korean complex
  North Korea appears to have built new facilities at the country’s Yongbyon nuclear complex, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US think tank, said in a report on June 10, citing new satellite imagery. “Commercial satellite imagery shows additional construction or renovation activities that occurred in the last two years,” the ISIS said. The findings suggest “more is going on at Yongbyon than commonly believed,” it added. “These construction or renovation activities took place after monitors of the International Atomic Energy Agency and US experts were removed from North Korea in April 2009.” The organization argued “The timing and location of these new buildings raise the possibility that these are related to North Korea’s uranium enrichment programme, the conversion of uranium, or fuel fabrication.”
• Why We Should Study Developing Nuclear Earth Penetrators – OpEd
  Written by: FPRI June 7, 2011 By Elbridge A. Colby With the ratification of the New START Treaty and the associated political commitments made by the Administration and Congress to modernize U.S. nuclear deterrent capabilities, attention is beginning to shift towards the shape of the future arsenal. Many questions remain: about the threats which we need to deter, about what we need to hold at risk in order to deter effectively, and about the size and nature of the arsenal needed to meet those requirements. One of the most pressing questions is what the United States can and should do about the growing ability of its most plausible state adversaries, including North Korea and Iran, [1] to locate their most valued assets underground in facilities effectively immune from missile, air, or naval attack. Estimates of the number of such “hard and deeply buried targets” (HDBTs) have ranged from as low as 50 in North Korea and Iran to as high as 10,000 worldwide according to an influential study by the National Academy of Sciences, citing the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (both estimates in 2005). [2] While reliable numbers are unavailable in the unclassified realm (and most likely also in the classified, due to the extremely formidable challenges of correctly identifying such facilities and accurately ascertaining their characteristics), it seems reasonable to assume that the number of significantly hardened and buried facilities in countries of concern stands at least in the hundreds and very possibly in the thousands. In any case, what is essentially undisputed is that potential adversaries such as North Korea and Iran are increasingly able to locate or move their most valued assets to underground depths beyond the effective reach of U.S. action (assuming that the most deeply buried facilities would be reserved primarily for the most important assets). [Nuclear weapons] [Threat]
• Japan's Nuclear Crisis Sparks Concerns over Nuclear Power in China
  By Wen Bo June 2, 2011 Wen Bo, Senior Fellow at Pacific Environment's China Program, writes, “[The Fukushima accident] was a rare opportunity for the Chinese media to cover nuclear issues and address concerns over nuclear power and its related hazards and risks. Though some nuclear specialists, indeed most of them, are supportive of nuclear power, mounting concern amongst the general public has emerged, making it clear that many would rather not have nuclear power at all. Other scholars indicated this is a golden opportunity to increase knowledge amongst the public on nuclear radiation and safety measures."
• Between Centrifugal and Centripetal World Forces: Extra-Territoriality of Resolution 1540 and Southern Perspectives
  By Rodrigo Alvarez V. June 1, 2011 This is a paper from the Nautilus Institute workshop “Cooperation to Control Non-State Nuclear Proliferation: Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction and UN Resolutions 1540 and 1373” held on April 4th and 5th in Washington DC with the Stanley Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This workshop explored the theoretical options and practical pathways to extend states' control over non-state actor nuclear proliferation through the use of extra-territorial jurisdiction and international legal cooperation. [NSA]

• N.Korea’s UNP for military purposes : UN panel of experts
  A panel of experts affiliated with UN Security Council was found to have recently prepared ‘Report of the Panel of Experts established pursuant to resolution 1874, May 2011’ urging North Korea to stop its uranium nuclear development, (http://www.scribd.com/doc/55808872/UN-Panel-of-Experts-NORK-Report-May-2011) In the report, the panel said it “believes both that, despite the assertions of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the contrary, its long pursuit of a uranium enrichment programme was primarily for military purposes, and that the risk that the uranium enrichment workshop could easily be converted for military purposes should be underlined.” “The Panel of Experts strongly believes that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea should be compelled to abandon its uranium enrichment programme and that all aspects of the programme should then be placed under international monitoring, and suggests steps towards this in its recommendations,” it added. The report includes satellite pictures of North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Complex Fuel Fabrication Complex and Uranium Enrichment Workshop. According to Yonhap News, however, the report was not officially adopted by UN Security Council as China refused to do so saying that the North’s nuclear issue should be discussed at the six-party talks. Meanwhile, the European Union will send a delegation to North Korea to assess the food situation there on the heels of a similar mission by U.S. officials, a source said Sunday. [UNUS] [LEU]
• Non-State Nuclear Proliferation: A Factsheet on the De jure and De facto WMD Control Regime in South Asia
  By Debi Prasad Dash May 26, 2011 This is a paper from the Nautilus Institute workshop “Cooperation to Control Non-State Nuclear Proliferation: Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction and UN Resolutions 1540 and 1373” held on April 4th and 5th in Washington DC with the Stanley Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This workshop explored the theoretical options and practical pathways to extend states' control over non-state actor nuclear proliferation through the use of extra-territorial jurisdiction and international legal cooperation. [NSA]
• Korea to make next space rocket without foreign help
  Korea will build a more powerful space rocket than its current model entirely with its own technology with the aim of launching the rocket after 2021, the state-run aerospace institute said Friday. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said the planned Korea Space Launch Vehicle-2 (KSLV-2) will be powered by indigenous liquid-fuel engines that will give 77 percent more power than the single power unit on board the Naro-1 rocket built by Russia. [KSLV] [Satellite]
• 'Pyongyang's export of uranium technology not an esay job'
  Corey Hinderstein By Kang Hyun-kyung A non-proliferation expert remained skeptical about the probability that North Korea will easily find a potential country interested in importing its enriched uranium technology. Corey Hinderstein, vice president of the international programs at the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), said Friday that it wouldn’t be easy for North Korea to find potential clients seeking the technology. “While potential customers are out there, they are very few. There are three or maybe four,” she said. Hinderstein said Syria and Myanmar could be potential clients, clarifying the countries she mentioned are based on her own speculative analysis, not on intelligence briefings. [HEU] [Evidence] [Proliferation]
• Life span of U.S. nuclear weapons will increase under plan
  By Walter Pincus, Thursday, May 19, 1:09 PM A new, 10-year strategic plan for the U.S. nuclear weapons complex demonstrates that as the size of the arsenal shrinks because of a new arms control treaty with Russia, the effectiveness and life span of the United States’s weapons will increase. Among the “select initiatives” listed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in an update released Wednesday of its 2004 strategic plan are life-extension programs for two nuclear missile warheads and one type of bomb. .Life extension for the W-76, the most numerous nuclear warhead in the U.S. stockpile, was initially approved in 2000. At first only 800 were to be refurbished, but the Bush administration raised that number to 2,000; the number now being refurbished is classified. The program will not be completed until 2018, according to the plan [Nuclear weapons]
• Supporting Online Material: North Korean Nuclear Statements (2002-2010)
  Peter Hayes and Scott Bruce May 17, 2011 This report is a collection of selected North Korean statements on their nuclear program. This material was assembled to support the report, “North Korean Nuclear Nationalism and the Threat of Nuclear War in Korea” by Peter Hayes Professor, RMIT University and Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute and Scott Bruce, Nautilus Institute Director. These sources are meant to show the change in DPRK statements on its nuclear program between October 2002 and the present. Statements from the Korean Worker’s Party (KWP), Korean People’s Army (KPA), and DPRK Cabinet are labeled as such so that the distinctions between the views of these different institutions in the DPRK can be observed.
• Nuclear scientist says bomb saved Pakistan
  AFP May 17, 2011, 4:02 am tweet0EmailPrint AFP © Enlarge photo WASHINGTON (AFP) - The father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb has vigorously defended the program as sparing his country the fate of Iraq or Libya, amid signs that Islamabad is ramping up its weapons capacities. Writing in Newsweek magazine, Abdul Qadeer Khan said that Pakistan's nuclear weapons had prevented war with historic rival India, which he accused of pursuing a "massive program" due to ambitions of superpower status. "Don't overlook the fact that no nuclear-capable country has been subjected to aggression or occupied, or had its borders redrawn. Had Iraq and Libya been nuclear powers, they wouldn't have been destroyed in the way we have seen recently," Khan said. Khan also argued that Bangladesh would not have won independence in 1971 if Pakistan had nuclear weapons. India supported Bangladesh's independence, which came after a nine-month struggle that was harshly put down by Pakistani forces. Many Pakistanis regard Khan as a hero for building the Islamic world's first nuclear bomb. India and Pakistan carried out nuclear tests in 1998. [Deterrence]
• Chinese Nuclear Weapons Capability Lags Far Behind U.S.; Will Remain That Way for Foreseeable Future, Report Finds
  Chinese General to Meet With Pentagon Officials This Week to Discuss U.S.-China Military Relationship WASHINGTON (May 16, 2011) -- The Chinese government is not trying to reach numerical parity with the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal and does not have the nuclear material to do so, according to a briefing paper released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The paper also found that China’s recent changes to its nuclear forces are intended to ensure they will survive an attack, preserve its ability to retaliate, and are not focused on increasing its offensive capability. UCS released the paper, “China’s Nuclear Arsenal: Status and Evolution,” the same day a top Chinese military official, General Chen Bingde, was scheduled to arrive in Washington to meet with Pentagon officials. As the former director general of the Chinese military’s General Armaments Department, Chen played a major role in the development of China’s strategic weapons programs. [China confrontation] [Military balance] [Nuclear weapons]
• Sandia Device Completes Plutonium Test
  Thursday, May 12, 2011 The Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico on March 31 fired its Z machine on a plutonium cache in a new test aimed at helping to ensure the upkeep of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the National Nuclear Security Administration said on Wednesday (see GSN, June 9, 2010). [Test] [Double standards] [Nuclear weapons]
• Using the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit to Denuclearize the DPRK: A Dialogue on Radiological Source Security
  By Kenneth N. Luongo On April 12-13, 2010 the United States convened the first Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in Washington, DC, including 47 nations and three international organizations. The purpose was to strengthen efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism by improving the security of all nuclear materials around the globe. At the end of this event, it was announced that the Republic of Korea (ROK) would host the next NSS in 2012.
• China May Hold Smallest Fissile Material Stockpile Among Nuclear Powers
  Tuesday, May 10, 2011 A Harvard University expert determined that China possesses roughly 16 tons of weapon-grade uranium and 1.8 tons of plutonium, seemingly the smallest fissile material stockpile of the five recognized nuclear powers, the Times of India reported on Sunday (see GSN, May 6). Updated information suggests China holds 17 to 26 tons of weapon-grade uranium and 2.1 to 6.6 tons of plutonium, said Hui Zhang, a senior research associate with Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. The report's uranium estimate has a 4-ton margin of error, and its plutonium estimate has a half-ton margin of error.
• Code of Conduct for Transfer of Nuclear Power Plant Technology to Consumer Countries
  By Gordon Thompson May 10, 2011 This report by Gordon Thompson outlines a code of conduct for transfer of nuclear power plant (NPP) technology to consumer countries.
• Fukushima’s Implications for Korea’s Nuclear Dilemmas
  By Peter Hayes May 4, 2011 Peter Hayes, Professor, RMIT University and Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, writes “Here, the point I want to make is that after Fukushima, Seoul must make a choice. It could engage the North to ensure that the small light water reactor project becomes an authentically inter-Korean project, and is implemented to international standards for design, engineering, and construction…Alternately, it could treat the North’s small light water reactor as a rapidly emerging environmental security threat to South Korea’s population and land, and decide whether it will act militarily to halt the reactor’s operation once it is turned on.” [LWR] [War]
• Beyond the Nuclear Umbrella: Re-Thinking the Theory and Practice of Nuclear Extended Deterrence in East Asia and the Pacific
  Peter Hayes and Richard Tanter May 3, 2011 This article was originally published by Pacific Focus in the April 2011 Special Issue: Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in Northeast Asia, which was produced in collaboration with Nautilus Institute staff and associates. Peter Hayes, Professor, RMIT University and Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, and Richard Tanter, Nautilus Institute Senior Associate, provide an overview of the Nautilus Institute’s exploration of two inter-linked but highly contested aspects of the strategic nuclear situation on the Korean peninsula: the complexity and uncertainty associated with United States assurances of nuclear extended deterrence to South Korea (and Japan), and the potential contribution a nuclear weapon free zone to shifting the current impasse concerning North Korean nuclear weapons. [NWFZ]
• Tracking Nuclear Capable Individuals
  André Buys Graduate School of Technology Management University of Pretoria, South Africa Presented at the Workshop on Cooperation to Control Non-State Nuclear Proliferation: Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction and UN Resolutions 1540 and 1373 Washington DC April 4 - 5, 2011 Abstract This paper draws on a South African case study to highlight the difficulty associated with winding down a nuclear weapons program and in determining the ultimate disposition of the human resources mobilized in that program and the specific issues confronted in the case of South Africa that may be salient in other cases in the coming decades. The question of whether the South African case study results can be extrapolated to the larger enterprise of nuclear abolition was considered. It was shown that there are a number of unique characteristics of the South African case that has to be kept in mind. A conceptual framework of the nuclear weapons acquisition process is used to classify and demarcate the nuclear weapons institutional, industrial and technological landscape and the magnitude and scope of the pool of knowledge and technology involved. The paper highlights the difference between the total number of skilled personnel mobilized in a nuclear weapons program, and the number of scientists and technicians who represent a proliferation threat by virtue of their knowledge and potential mobility. [Proliferation] [Surveillance]

• 'NK has made progress in new light-water reactor construction'
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- North Korea has made progress in building a light water reactor in its nuclear complex, a U.S. think tank said Wednesday, amid concerns that that might serve as another way of making nuclear weapons for the reclusive communist state. Citing commercial satellite imagery taken March 8, the Institute for Science and International Security said on its Web site that North Korea made "progress in the construction of what North Korea has stated will be a light water reactor." The nonprofit, nonpartisan institution dedicated to nuclear nonproliferation said, "A cylinder can be seen in the image and it measures approximately 21 meters across." [LWR]
• New Satellite Photos Show Construction at N.Korea Nuclear Site
  A U.S.-based security organization says North Korea is making progress on what Pyongyang says is a light water reactor that has raised new international concerns about the secretive North's nuclear weapons program. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) on Wednesday released satellite images showing construction activity at the Yongbyon nuclear complex -- the North Korean site where two U.S. scientists were shown a sophisticated uranium processing facility last year. [Intelligence]
• Efforts to resolve N. Korea nuclear issue to intensify this week
  The state of affairs on the Korean peninsula seem to be facing a crucial turning point with simultaneous diplomatic trips of envoys from regional powers scheduled to take place this week. Former United States President Jimmy Carter is said to start a three-day visit to North Korea this coming Tuesday. Carter and his delegation have arrived in Beijing on Saturday and are likely to meet with high-ranking officials there including Wang Jiarui and Wu Dawei, where they will be briefed on China and North Korea’s shared stance on the six-party nuclear talk resumption.
• Wu and Carter visits suggest movement on six-party talks
  Observers say meetings for six-party talks or the North Korea nuclear issue could be on the table By Son Won-je, Staff Writer Wu Dawei, Chinese special representative for Korean Peninsular affairs and China’s chief negotiator in the six-party talks, will visit South Korea Tuesday. This is the same day former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visits North Korea. Carter is scheduled to travel directly to Seoul from Pyongyang on Thursday. Observations are emerging that North Korea may convey a message to Seoul regarding the resumption of six-party talks through Wu and Carter.
• British Submarines to Receive Upgraded US Nuclear Warhead
  Apr 01 . By Hans M. Kristensen Sea-launched ballistic missiles on British ballistic missile submarines will be armed with the upgraded W76-1 nuclear warhead currently in production in the United States, according to a report from Sandia National Laboratories. [Nuclear weapons] [Proliferation]
• N.Korea 'Uses Overseas Missions to Trade in Nuclear Materials'
  North Korea uses its overseas missions and shell companies as fronts for the illicit trade of weapons and materials related to nuclear and missile development, Kyodo News on Monday quoted a UN panel report as saying. The report on North Korea's uranium enrichment program compiled in January by the UN Security Council's North Korea Sanctions Committee says the regime's uranium enrichment appears to be "primarily for military reasons or at least for dual use." [UNUS]
• N.Korea's Nuclear Facilities 'a Disaster in the Making'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is using nuclear weapons development to maintain his firm grip on power, but a compilation of North Korean state media reports the Unification Ministry has gathered since June 2000, the reclusive leader has never visited the main Yongbyon nuclear complex. Experts say this is unusual given that Kim has undertaken more than 100 of his so-called on-the-spot guidance tours this year alone, to anything from shoe factories to military units. One theory is that the site is simply too dangerous. Yongbyon "is such a 'sensitive' location that he may have made secret visits, but there is a good chance that he avoided visiting the site due to fears of radiation," an intelligence official said. Sensitive locations do not normally put Kim off. Some years ago he made two visits to a long-range missile base and a nuclear testing site in North Hamgyong Province.
• Fukushima crisis on par with Chernobyl
  By Jonathan Soble, Michiyo Nakamoto and Gwen Robinson in Tokyo Published: April 12 2011 04:06 | Last updated: April 12 2011 07:44 Japan has raised its assessment of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station to the most serious level on a seven-step international scale, equivalent to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The country’s nuclear regulator said on Tuesday it had increased its assessment by two notches on the International Atomic Energy Agency scale to reflect the potential impact of continued leaks of radiation on human health and the environment. “We have not stopped the release of radioactive material from Fukushima Daiichi station, so there is a concern that [the eventual contamination] could be equal to or greater than Chernobyl,” said Junichi Matsumoto, an official at Tokyo Electric Power, the plant’s operator. “If 100 per cent of the radioactive material escaped from the reactors, it is possible that the accident would exceed Chernobyl,” he said. .
• DPRK Delegate on Denuclearization of Korean Peninsula
  Pyongyang, April 11 (KCNA) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will always live up to its commitment before the international community as a responsible nuclear weapons state, said the DPRK delegate when speaking at a meeting of the United Nations Disarmament Commission on April 4. He said that the international community has made every possible effort for nuclear disarmament for decades but the total dismantlement of nuclear weapons aspired after by human beings still remains an outstanding task. If the U.S. and other biggest nuclear weapons states take the lead in the nuclear disarmament it will have positive impact on those countries which had access to nukes recently, he said, adding that this will also help realize a world without nuclear weapons. Citing facts to prove that the U.S. has steadily posed nuclear threats to the DPRK up to now since 1950, he stressed that the nuclear threat is not an abstract concept but a real threat to the Korean people. The U.S. is to blame for the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula because it posed nuclear threat to the DPRK over half a century after introducing nuclear weapons to south Korea, he said. The structure of the nuclear confrontation in the peninsula represents the one of confrontation between the DPRK and the U.S., he stressed. It is the consistent stand of the DPRK government to ensure peace and security and materialize the denuclearization of the peninsula through dialogue and negotiations, he concluded. [Denuclearisation]
• New 'Nuclear Facility' Spotted in N.Korea
  A satellite photograph of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex taken on March 24 shows a dome-shaped structure and construction taking place right next door that were not visible in a surveillance photo taken in November last year. The dome-shaped structure measuring around 30 m in diameter is apparently around 40 m tall. [LWR]
• Concerns grow over radiation leaks from NK
  By Lee Tae-hoon Safety concerns are growing over the construction of North Korea’s experimental light-water reactors in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, as the isolated communist regime accelerates the risky mission without proper supervision and safety monitoring. A satellite picture obtained by KBS shows that Pyongyang has made considerable progress in the construction of the Yongbyon nuclear complex over the past few months. [Media][LWR]
• Radioactive Fallout Expected in Korea Thursday
  Experts warn that small amounts of radioactive particles from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant will be blown into the Korean Peninsula around Thursday. A spokesman for the Korea Meteorological Administration on Monday said a northeasterly wind began blowing in the morning and radioactive materials from the Fukushima plant will probably be carried in the direction of Okinawa, south of Japan. On Thursday, this wind will likely turn into a southwesterly that could carry radioactive particles accumulated in Okinawa to Korea.
• At Chernobyl, a warning for Japan
  By Will Englund, Sunday, April 3, 9:05 PM CHERNOBYL, Ukraine — Forbidding under a cold, gray sky, the dead atomic power plant here is a living enterprise. The explosion that struck 25 years ago this month, in the world’s worst nuclear accident, set in motion a major undertaking that today bears on the life of the entire country. It is a model, or a warning, for what could await Japan. The crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant will at some point be contained — but then there begins a national project from which there is no exit strategy. Though the turbines are still, and cranes dangle above two unfinished reactors, just as they have for the past 25 years, too radioactive to be moved anywhere else, this is not a ghost town. Trains arrive on freshly laid tracks, workshops in an un-Soviet shade of blue (sic) dot the grounds and steam billows from the chimney of a new gas-fired heating plant that sends hot water throughout the complex.
• Japan's Nuclear Crisis: A Wakeup Call for the World
  By Gavan McCormack
  Mar. 14, 2011:-- After years of warnings about the "North Korean nuclear threat" now suddenly the entire Northeast Asian region is subjected to the "Japan nuclear threat," just as North Korea has been warning for years. Apart from the Fukushima meltdown risk, how safe is Japan's plutonium mountain, accumulating in the waste piles and underground parking places outside reactors up and down the country, 50 odd tons of radioactive sludge, and at the vast repositories at Rokkasho, just up the road from Fukushima, which has a planned reprocessing capacity of 800 tons of spent fuel per year, including eight tons of plutonium? It is surely time now to revisit, debate, and in due course reverse the policies adopted especially in the New National Energy Policy of 2006, which defined the future of the country as a "nuclear state" (genshiryoku rikkoku). [Nuclear energy]
• Why the 1992 Joint Declaration on Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula Still Matters
  By Jeffrey Lewis There are plenty of reasons not to put U.S. nuclear weapons back into South Korea. Tactical nuclear weapons serve no military purpose. It is a close call on which the Air Force would fight harder to keep out of South Korea: U.S. tactical nuclear weapons or the North Koreans. Then there is the fact that most South Koreans don’t actually want tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea, either.
• Fukushima Reactors Catastrophe: Radiation Exposure, Lies and Cover-up
  by Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri Global Research, March 26, 2011 “Should the public discover the true health cost[s] of nuclear pollution, a cry would rise from all parts of the world and people would refuse to cooperate passively with their own death.” Dr. Rosalie Bertell. “No Immediate Danger,” xiii. I write this article not just as a long-time environmental writer and author, but also as a survivor of the horrific 2003 1-million-acre Southern California FIRESTORM that took many lives (both human and millions of animals) during the three-and-a-half-weeks of out-of-control blazes and 400-foot-high walls of flames throughout San Diego and Orange counties. This nightmare blanketed a vast area from over the border into Tijuana up to just south of Los Angeles. Many “back county” areas and national and state parks were also destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of us could not evacuate because planes were grounded and the flames crossed over many freeways. Death and destruction continued for many years after. Many of my friends have died since then, due to fire-related illnesses, as the entire area was blanketed with a spew of toxins. As with the tragedy of September 11th, when Christy Todd Whitman said New York’s air was okay, our local “public” officials refused to monitor the air. Finally, unable to breathe, even with a high-tech respirator, I called the county with warnings. San Diego air “quality” samples were posted for only three days and then conveniently disappeared. Toxins were off the scale. We had just 15 minutes to evacuate, when the helicopter flew overhead at 7 a.m. My entire neighborhood of 2,000 was destroyed, as well as 90 percent of all the wildlife! It was deliberately torched, and people and animals died. When we were finally allowed “home,” all that was left was burn, ash, skeletons of trees, and hot soil. I know what it means, day-to-day, to just barely survive a countywide catastrophe. I know what deep trauma is all about. I know how everyone in charge lies and deceives those of us in extremis. I know that when a place in the US is declared a “Federal Disaster” area, this quite literally means: “tough, you are on your own. There will be no help.” My heart aches for the people in Japan who are directly in harm’s way, while their government continues to make nuclear corporate profits the priority over the safety of millions of Japanese. It is criminal; and it happens all over. During and for years after the FIRESTORM, public officials lied and deceived us. Insurance companies refused to honor thousands of policies, and many of us had to take them to court…but even the “justice” system is rigged. From the mayor and fire officials to the governor and a so-called “Blue Ribbon Commission,” the 14 arson fires and their causes were all covered-up. No one was held accountable. No one told us the truth. Further, we barely had any real help in clean-up or recovery –even if we had insurance. Knee-deep in warm ash, I shoveled it myself over seven-and-a-half months, with only 5 days of help. Thousands of us had to do it ourselves…even to getting our own Relief Center set up –again, because officials gave us the run-around.

• “Long Since Passed the Level of Three Mile Island” – The Fukushima Crisis in Comparative Perspective
  Mar. 25, 2011:By the APJ Editors UPDATED March 27 with JAPANESE TRANSLATION of IEER report. As the crisis in Fukushima grows more serious (see reports here, here, and here), international scientific organizations have begun painting an increasingly dire picture of radiation releases from the plant. [Nuclear energy]
• N.Korea on alert for nuclear contamination
  North Korea is on high alert for any possible radioactive damage from the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in neighboring Japan, reported Yoo Yong-geun, head of the North Korean geology experts delegation, on Tuesday during talks with South Korean counterparts. The meeting between the North Korean and South Korean civilian experts on possible volcano activity in Mount. Baekdu in North Korea took place in the South Korean border town of Munsan that day.
• Engaging the DPRK Part 2: Transforming the DPRK through Energy Sector Development
  By von Hippel Bruce and Hayes In a follow up to Small LWR Development and Denuclearization (2.27.11), Nautilus Institute’s David von Hippel, Scott Bruce, and Peter Hayes provide a second 38 North Special Report with detailed provisions for energy sector engagement with North Korea. [Energy] [Engagement]
• North Korea’s New Launch Site
  By David Wright Last week press stories announced that North Korea had completed a second launch site for long-range rockets, which is bigger and more sophisticated than its original site. Tim Brown of globalsecurity.org found the new site, called Tongch’ang-dong after a nearby town, using satellite images in 2008 and has been following its progress since then. Previously, North Korea launched its multi-stage rockets from a site in Musudan-ri on the east coast of the country, near the Sea of Japan. The most recent launch from that site was in April 2009 when the Unha-2 launcher failed to place a small satellite into orbit.
  But the most compelling reason to me is the fact that this location allows North Korea to launch south and avoid overflying any country during its boost phase (see Figure 2). Pyongyang can argue this represents a more responsible approach to flight testing, and that it removes Japan’s objections about overflights. Attempting to launch south from its original launch site would overfly South Korea. Moreover, since the flight path would be very similar to the trajectory that South Korean launches follow, Pyongyang can argue that objections to its launches represents an international double standard.
  Given this, it seems that a tower of this size would only be required if North Korea planned to eventually develop and launch a space-launch vehicle like modern Chinese vehicles. [Satellite]
• White House reaffirms support of ‘non-nuclear Korean Peninsula’
  The U.S. has consistently dismissed calls from some conservatives to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons By Kwon Tae-ho, Washington Correspondent The White House officially reaffirmed Monday (local time) that it has no plans to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea. White House National Security Council (NSC) deputy spokesman Robert Jensen said that the position of the Barack Obama administration is that “tactical nuclear weapons are unnecessary for the defense of South Korea” and that the administration has “no plan or intention to return them.” [Nuclear weapons]
• Conservatives renew call for nuclear weapons on Korean Peninsula
  Experts say the call is both infeasible and might hinder efforts to end North Korea‘s nuclear program By Yi Yong-in, Staff Writer Select ruling Grand National Party (GNP) lawmakers and conservative media have begun to revisit the issue of the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea, which were withdrawn in the early 1990s, as a response to the North Korean nuclear program. Experts and the government, however, are showing skepticism, saying there is no possibility of this happening and that the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. In an editorial Monday, the Joongang Ilbo openly said it supports the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to Korea until the denuclearization of North Korea is realized. The Segye Ilbo also wrote in a Feb. 25 editorial that the redeployment should be considered, saying that as long as North Korea failed to permanently abandon its nuclear program, a redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons could be a realistic response. [Nuclear weapons]

• Two-Thirds of S.Koreans Support Nuclear Armament
  Two out of three South Koreans believe the country should arm itself with nuclear weapons in response to the North Korean nuclear threat, according to handouts distributed at the National Assembly on Thursday by former Grand National Party chairman Chung Mong-joon. [Nuclear weapons]
• Small LWR Development and Denuclearization
  By von Hippel Bruce and Hayes In a 38 North Special Report, Nautilus Institute’s David von Hippel, Scott Bruce, and Peter Hayes suggest an energy engagement strategy for reining in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. [LWR]
• Korea had 950 nuclear warheads till 1991
  Nuclear weapons were deployed on the Korean Peninsula for 33 years from 1958 until 1991 when the United States withdrew the last 100 tactical nuclear warheads, a local daily reported. In January 1958, the United States deployed tactical nuclear weapons for the first time, with small nuclear warheads on the rocket, Honest John, and 8-inch howitzers. The 8-inch howitzers were deployed for 33 years until they were withdrawn in 1991, JoongAng Daily said. In March 1958, nuclear warheads that could be dropped from fighter jets were deployed; while Lacrosse, Davy Crockett and Sergeant missiles with small nuclear warheads made their debut in Korea between July 1960 and September 1963. As many as 950 warheads were deployed as of 1967 as a growing number of tactical nuclear weapons were introduced. A total of 11 types of tactical nuclear weapons were deployed over 10 years. Training on handling nuclear warheads continued until 1991. According to declassified documents in the United States, this occurred at the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing which possessed 48 F-16C/Ds at the U.S. Air Base in Gunsan during the first half of the year.
• Is N.Korea Getting Ready for Another Nuclear Test?
  North Korea has dug a new 800 m-deep tunnel at its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province, it emerged on Sunday. Experts believe it will be ready for another nuclear test once it reaches a depth of 1 km.
• N.Korea 'preparing 3rd nuke test'
  Source: Global Times [08:02 February 21 2011] Comments By Hao Zhou North Korea is digging tunnels in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province, the site of two previous nuclear test launches, Seoul's Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday. "South Korea and US intelligence authorities have spotted the North building a couple of additional tunnels in Punggye-ri," Yonhap quoted a South Korean government source as saying. "It's obvious that North Korea is preparing for a third nuclear test." North Korea conducted its two previous plutonium-fueled nuclear tests, one each in October 2006 and May 2009, at the Punggye-ri site. "It's unclear whether the North will conduct a plutonium-fueled nuclear test or uranium-fueled one," the source added. "We are closely watching its new missile launch site in Dongchang-ri and the Punggye-ri nuclear test site," a South Korean military source told Yonhap. Both South Korean and US officials have voiced concerns of more provocative attacks by North Korea following its walk-out earlier this month from a two-day meeting that aimed to clear the air. However, Chinese experts have dismissed the possibility of a third nuclear test by North Korea in the near future.
• New N.Korean Space Launch Site Appears Completed
  Image taken from the Ikonos satellite on Jan. 10, 2011 /Courtesy of DigitalGlobe and GlobalSecurity.org New satellite imagery seen by VOA News shows North Korea has completed a launch tower at its second missile launch facility, in the country's northwest. Intelligence analysts in the United States and South Korea are keeping a close eye on the facility, near Tongchang-dong. The site is seen as a critical element in Pyongyang's quest to build a missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon across the Pacific. The satellite pictures were taken during the past month. Most significantly, the photographs reveal a completed launch umbilical tower at Tongchang-dong. [Satellite] [Intelligence]
• 'NK launch site completed'
  North Korea has completed a launch tower at a missile launch facility in Tongchang-dong, Voice of America (VOA) reported Wednesday. Showing new satellite imagery it had obtained, VOA said intelligence analysts of the United States and South Korea have watched the facility carefully. Experts said that it is a major step in North Korea’s plan for an intercontinental ballistic missile that can strike the United States. [Satellite]
• Iran 'Paid N.Korea $2 Billion for Enriched Uranium'
  Iran has allegedly paid North Korea US$2 billion over the past three years in exchange for enriched uranium. Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper claimed Thursday that North Korea exported enriched uranium from a nuclear facility in Yongbyon to Tehran, which needed the material for its nuclear program. North Korea is said to have received hard currency to purchase the necessary equipment and centrifuges to build other nuclear plants. The newspaper added that an Iranian delegation traveled to Pyongyang once a year since 2008 to handle the financial transactions.
• Korea brushes aside UAE doubts
  Korea Electric Power Corp. CEO Kim Ssang-soo, left, sign an agreement with United Arab Emirates (UAE) Nuclear Energy Corp. President Khaldoon Khalifa al-Mubarak on the $18.6 billion deal on the nuclear power plants at Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi. Sitting behind were Korea's President Lee Myung-bak, left, and UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed. / Korea Times More details about $20 bil. deal leaked By Kim Tae-gyu The country’s nuclear power deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been dubbed as one of the most outstanding exploits of the Lee Myung-bak administration along with the successful hosting of the G20 Seoul Summit. During the waning days of 2009, its consortium led by Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) won an $18.6 billion contract to build four nuclear power plants in the UAE by 2020 through beating favored contenders from France and the United States. However, the high-profile contract may burden the incumbent government because suspicions continue to spring up that it offered overly generous promises to win the largest energy deal in the Middle East. The first controversy was over the military dispatch of around 130 combat troops to the UAE after obtaining parliamentary approval last December amid an opposition boycott of the vote. They plan to help train the special forces of the Middle Eastern state for two years. Opposition parties contended that the deployment was associated with the nuclear plant contract. Further doubts were raised this week that Korea’s Export-Import Bank was found to have pledged to lend up to half of the $18.6 billion so that the UAE is supposed to repay the debts over almost three decades. [Nuclear energy]
• Korea, Russia at Odds Over Rocket Launch Failure
  The satellite-carrying space rocket Naro is launched at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province on June 10. Korean and Russian officials have failed to determine the cause of failure in the second attempt to launch Korea's space rocket Naro, making it unlikely that a third launch can take place any time soon. The Ministry of Science, Education and Technology said Monday officials from both sides held a fourth round of meetings in Russia on Dec. 24-27 but were unable to narrow their differences. [Satellite]
• U.N. report suggests N. Korea has secret nuclear sites
  By Chico Harlan Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, January 31, 2011; 11:37 PM TOKYO - A confidential report from a panel of United Nations experts suggests that North Korea may have additional secret nuclear facilities, according to U.N. diplomats who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity. The report, prepared for the U.N. Security Council, reinforces a widely held belief within the Obama administration that North Korea has constructed a network of nuclear sites beyond its Yongbyon plant, which U.S. nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker visited in November. The report could also lead to calls for tighter pressure against Pyongyang, which already faces U.N. sanctions designed to choke its nuclear arms program.
• Secretary Gates and the North Korean Missile Threat
  By David Wright On January 11, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made headlines during his trip to China by forecasting an increased threat of nuclear missile attack on the United States by North Korea. Referring to the next five years, Gates said, “I think that North Korea will have developed an intercontinental ballistic missile within that time frame,” but added, “I believe they will have a very limited capability.”[1] This immediately led to questions about the meaning of what appeared to be a new threat assessment. Some reports said it reflected new U.S. intelligence on North Korean missile and nuclear programs, but others believed this was not the case.[2] Indeed, another report cited “U.S. officials” as saying that the assessment was not new but simply reflected the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on North Korea from 2001, which predicted that “before 2015 the United States most likely will face ICBM threats from North Korea.”[3] [Threat] [Military balance] [Missile] [Intelligence]
• Official Estimates of the TaepoDong-2
  By Philip Maxon Earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates provided the latest estimated range and timeline of the North Korean ICBM, the TaepoDong-2. According to Gates, the DPRK is within five years of being able to strike the continental United States, combined with its expanding nuclear program, the country “is becoming a direct threat to the United States.”[i] His announcement caught the press off guard, but for policy wonks, it was just the latest in a long line of estimates from the U.S. intelligence community and officials that vary widely but rely on many assumptions that need further examination. [Threat] [Military balance] [Missile] [Intelligence]

• DPRK Stand on Denuclearization of Korea Remains Unchanged
  Pyongyang, January 26 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK released following statement Wednesday: Thanks to the sincere efforts of the DPRK there are now a series of possibilities on the Korean Peninsula for defusing the tense situation, which was inching close to the brink of war, and restarting the process for its denuclearization. Efforts are being exerted by countries around it to promote them. It is the common aspiration of the international community and the urgent need of the times to ensure peace and stability of the peninsula through dialogues and negotiations and push ahead with its denuclearization. However, the forces keen to pursue their selfish goals through increased tension and confrontation [Denuclearization] [NK US policy]
• PNND delegation to North Korea
  A small delegation led by PNND New Zealand representative the Hon Matt Robson (former Minister for Disarmament) and academic Tim Beal (Associate Professor at Victoria University) travelled to Beijing and Pyongyang from 1-12 November 2010 in order to explore ideas for the peace and nuclear disarmament in North East Asia. The delegation met with parliamentarians, government officials, academics and peace & disarmament organizations. They explored a number of issues and initiatives including resumption of the Six Party talks on de-nuclearisation, proposal for a North East Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, possibility of a peace treaty to formally end the war, increasing cultural and educational exchanges, building common interests through trade and economic cooperation, and other mechanisms for building regional peace and security.
• S.Korea’s ballistic missile firing range may increase
  Conservatives have used the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island incidents to further their push for stronger military weaponry » The small circle represents South Korea’s current missile firing range, while the larger circle represents the new proposed firing range. Kwon Hyuk-chul, Staff Writer South Korea and the United States reportedly began discussions in late 2010 toward amending the ROK-U.S. missile guidelines, which restrict the firing range of South Korean ballistic missiles to 300 km. The goal of the discussions is to further loosen the restriction on the firing range following the revisions agreed upon in the new missile guidelines of Jan. 2001, in which the limit for independently developed missiles was extended from a 180 km firing range to a 300 km range and a weight of up to 500 kilograms. “Following the Cheonan sinking and the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island last year, South Korea and the U.S. agreed significantly on the issue of extending the ballistic missile firing range,” a government source said Wednesday. [Missile] [Buildup] [Capture]
• Fact-finding trip to DPRK – report by Matt Robson
  Report from Matt Robson- Representative of Parliamentarians Network for Nuclear Disarmament (PNND) and board member of Aotearoa Lawyers for Peace (ALP) on: Fact-finding trip, with a special emphasis on nuclear disarmament, to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) 5 November-12 November 2010 organised by New Zealand –DPRK Society
• Hu calls for early resumption of 6-way talks
  WASHINGTON -- Chinese President Hu Jintao Sunday called for early resumption of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear dismantlement deadlocked for years over the North's provocations and ensuing international sanctions. "China actively advocates and promotes the six-party talks process," Hu said in a written interview with The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. "We hope that proceeding from the overall interests of the denuclearization of the peninsula and regional peace and stability, the parties concerned will take active measures and create conditions for the resumption of the six-party talks." [Six Part Talks]
• Lee calls for UN action on NK uranium enrichment program
  By Jung Sung-ki President Lee Myung-bak said Saturday that the issue of North Korea’s uranium enrichment program should be brought to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). He made the remarks during a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara at Cheong Wa Dae. [LWR]
• N.Korea's Nuclear Missile Threat Under the Spotlight
  Assessing the threat North Korea's ballistic missiles pose to the U.S depends on whether they are capable of reaching the U.S. mainland and whether it is able to install nuclear warheads on them. To make an intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach the U.S. mainland, the North needs to be able to launch a smaller warhead payload. But the smaller, the weaker the payload will be. That is why the North continues to develop nuclear warheads rather than conventional ones. [Military balance] [Missile] [Intelligence]
• How Soon Can N.Korea Develop Long-Range Missiles?
  U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates claims that North Korea will be able to develop an inter-continental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland within five years. It is rare for a high-ranking U.S. government official to publicly present a time frame for such speculation. [Missile]
• Nuclear Inspection in N.Korea 'Would Take Several Years'
  The International Atomic Energy Agency believes it would take several years to find out how much plutonium North Korea has secured to make nuclear weapons even if the North fully cooperates with inspectors, a diplomatic cable revealed by WikiLeaks shows. A cable from Vienna dated Dec. 2, 2009 contains minutes of a meeting between U.S. Congressmen on Nov. 10 and Tariq Rauf of the IAEA's Office of External Relations and Policy Coordination, where the issue was discussed. [WikiLeaks] [IAEA]