Bringing Russia’s New Nuclear Weapons Into New START
Pranay Vaddi | Lawfare
The last treaty that limits the United States’s and Russia’s nuclear weapons, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), will expire in February 2021 unless both states agree to its extension. Opponents of extension, including some U.S. officials, have argued against extending the treaty by citing Russia’s new, developmental strategic weapons, which they claim will not be covered by the treaty. Yet the reality is more complex. If the Trump administration is serious about limiting the most immediately worrisome of these weapons, New START provides a framework to do so.
A Mysterious Explosion Took Place in Russia. What Really Happened?
Jeffrey Lewis | Foreign Policy
On Thursday, Aug. 8, Russian authorities issued a surprising announcement. Some sort of accident had occurred during a test of a missile engine near the city of Severodvinsk, along Russia’s Arctic coast. Two people died, and there had been a brief spike in radiation detected. Soon after, images and videos appeared on social media of first responders in hazmat suits, ambulances, and a helicopter for an emergency airlift. The reference to radiation was striking—tests of missile engines don’t involve radiation. Well, with one exception: Last year, Russia announced it had tested a cruise missile powered by a nuclear reactor. It calls this missile the 9M730 Burevestnik. NATO calls it the SSC-X-9 Skyfall. My colleagues and I at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies—who regularly use open-source tools to monitor the state of nuclear proliferation around the world—wondered if something had gone wrong with the Skyfall. We soon discovered there was good reason to believe so.
North Korea Tests New Type of Short-Range Ballistic Missile
Ankit Panda | The Diplomat
On Sunday, North Korean state media reported that leader Kim Jong Un had supervised the test of a new type of ballistic missile on Saturday. The test took place off a beach near the city of Hamhung, where North Korea is thought to manufacture components for its ballistic missiles—especially those using solid propellants. The missiles each flew to a range of 400 km, exhibiting an in-flight apogee of 48 km. The new missile appears to be a canisterized, short-range, solid-fuel ballistic missile. It was launched from an integrated transporter-erector-launcher vehicle that had tracks, allowing it to go off-road. The launches mark the continuation of a rapid testing campaign that began in July with tests of the KN23 short-range ballistic missile, a system that bears several similarities to the newly tested missile.
Russian Village Near Nuclear-Powered Missile Explosion to Be Briefly Evacuated
Will Englund | Washington Post
Residents of a village close to where a missile carrying nuclear material accidentally exploded said they were told to evacuate Wednesday morning for two hours. The Russian military, which had said that residents should leave, later appeared to be backtracking. Amid jitters over the potential radiation hazards of such an explosion, the governor said it wouldn’t be an evacuation but a “routine measure.” A special train was to be dispatched to Nyonoksa to take villagers away, according to news organizations in Russia’s northern Arkhangelsk region.
Trump Considering North Korea Envoy as Next Ambassador to Russia – Source
Reuters
Stephen Biegun, the diplomat who has been leading efforts to revive stalled U.S. denuclearization talks with North Korea, is under consideration to be President Donald Trump’s next ambassador to Russia, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday. The current ambassador to Moscow, Jon Huntsman, is due to step down in October after two years in the post, the State Department said last week, amid speculation he plans to run for Utah governor. If Biegun, a Russia specialist, was to get the Moscow post, it would leave a significant hole in the U.S. effort to resume talks aim at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, a policy priority for Trump.
Liberty Korea Party Demands Nuclear Armament
Jung Suk-yee | Business Korea
Liberty Korea Party leader Hwang Kyo-ahn said on Aug. 12 that the South Korean government has to take an effective measure to provide against North Korea’s nuclear weapons. The measure he implied is nuclear armament. With the North having launched a series of missiles, the party is advocating redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons, NATO-style nuclear sharing and permanent nuclear submarine deployment.