Biden’s Next Steps on North Korea Contain a Dose of Realism
Ankit Panda | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has concluded its North Korea policy review and offered the public a glimpse of its rough dimensions. Like its predecessors, the full content of the administration’s policy review will likely remain classified, so for now analysts are reading between the lines. The administration’s limited on-the-record descriptions of its policy and secondary reporting in the press suggest cause for measured, cautious optimism about the prospects for managing the challenge of a nuclear-armed North Korea. Structural factors and North Korea’s own policy, however, leave cause for pessimism.
New Negotiations on Nuclear Deal With Iran: How Stabilization Can Succeed Without Trust in Tehran
Ariel (Eli) Levite and Shimon Stein | Der Tagesspiegel
Now that Joe Biden is president of the United States, diplomatic efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal are picking up steam. This is a new opportunity for the European Union to play an important role in shaping it. It is in the EU’s vital political and strategic interest not only to show diplomatic support for efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, but also to influence the content of the renewed nuclear deal.
Air Force Aborts Test Launch of Unarmed Minuteman III Nuclear Missile
Rachel S. Cohen | Air Force Times
The Air Force said Wednesday it called off a test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III nuclear missile at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, after the weapon turned itself off during the final countdown. The intercontinental ballistic missile, fired from an underground silo at the coastal base, “experienced a ground abort prior to launch,” the service said in a release. “During terminal countdown, the missile computer detected a fault in the sequence of checks it does prior to launching. Upon detection of this fault, it shut itself down,” just as the system is designed to do, Air Force Global Strike Command spokesperson Carla Pampe told Air Force Times.
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Upgrade Sees Delay on Leaky Silos, Old Tech
Anthony Capaccio | Bloomberg
Upgrading America’s nuclear missile arsenal will likely take longer than expected because of the complexities of pulling 1970s-era ICBMs out of aging silos and testing and installing replacement missiles and technology to run the system for decades to come, according to a congressional audit. The Air Force faces the complicated challenge of removing a total of about 400 Minuteman-III intercontinental ballistic missiles and their command-and-control electronics at the rate of about 50 per year from silos and support buildings in various states of deterioration, some with water damage, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Thursday.
Russia to Hold Three Test Launches of its Newest Sarmat ICBM This Year — Source
TASS
Russia will carry out three test launches of its advanced Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) this year, sources in Russia’s defense industry and close to the Russian defense ministry have told TASS. “Three launches of the Sarmat ICBM will be carried out as part of flight development tests in 2021,” one of them said. “The first launch of the Sarmat ICBM within the framework of flight development tests will be carried out tentatively in the third quarter of 2021, a field at the Kura testing range on Kamchatka will be a target,” another source said.
Vienna Nuclear Talks Hit a Snag Over Iran's Centrifuges
Barak Ravid | Axios
Big gaps between the U.S. and Iran over the measures needed to roll back and limit the Iranian nuclear program are stalling the Vienna talks, European diplomats and former U.S. officials briefed on the issue tell me. What’s happening: The Biden administration has said any deal to restore the 2015 nuclear accord must include a return by Iran to full compliance with its previous commitments. But that’s complicated by the fact that Iran's nuclear program has advanced since 2015.