Can Trump Enforce His Red Line on North Korea?
James Acton
It was only eight years ago that the United States had just one president at a time. Yet those days have felt much more distant over the past two months as the president-elect, Donald Trump, has set about merrily reshaping U.S. policy 140 characters at a time. Tuesday evening saw what might turn out to be one of his more consequential Twitter proclamations. In a New Year’s address, North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, had stated that his country had “entered the final stage of preparation for the test launch of intercontinental ballistic missile.” In response, Trump tweeted that “North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen!”
Nuclear Plants Fall Victim to Economic Pressures
Russell Gold and Cassandra Sweet | Wall Street Journal
Utilities are closing U.S. nuclear-power plants at a rapid clip as they face competition from cheaper sources of electricity and political pressure from critics. New York’s Indian Point plant about 35 miles north of Manhattan, a major source of power for the city and its surrounding suburbs, is the latest casualty. Owner Entergy Corp. announced on Monday that it will close the facility as part of an agreement with the state of New York, whose governor, Andrew Cuomo, has long criticized the plant as a safety threat.
Read more about nuclear and electricity sector reform policy issues in the US, China, and elsewhere in Mark Hibbs' "The Nuclear Renaissance?"
THAAD Tension Brews After China Sends Planes to Korea's Air Zone
Korea Herald
Tension between South Korea and China flared up Tuesday after Beijing‘s fighter jets entered South Korea’s air defense zone without prior notice, amid protests from China over a US anti-missile system set to be installed here. According to the Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, some 10 Chinese military planes -- including bombers -- flew into the Korean air defense identification zone near the southern island of Jeju between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday. The aircrafts also entered an equivalent air defense zone near the Tsushima Strait of Japan.
Pakistan Successfully Test-Fires First Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile: ISPR
Dawn
Pakistan on Monday successfully test-fired its first ever submarine-launched cruise missile Babur-III, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said. The range of the missile is 450 kilometres, the DG ISPR said. Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa congratulated the team behind the launch and the nation on the development, Maj Gen Ghafoor said.
Israeli Satellite Imagery Shows Russian Nuclear-Capable Missiles in Syria
Barbara Opall-Rome | Defense News
High-resolution imagery released on Thursday confirms what Moscow-watchers and intelligence analysts have known since March of last year: the deployment of Russian nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in Syria. Captured on Dec 28 by the Israeli-built Eros B satellite, the spy-quality images were posted Jan. 5 on the website of ImageSat International (iSi), a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the state-owned firm that builds all of Israel’s spy satellites.
Terror Unleashed: An Assessment of Global and National Impacts of a Nuclear Terrorist Attack
Latin American and Caribbean Leadership Network
Intuitive thinking shows that such act would undoubtedly draw a line in the history of humankind. In fact, it would trigger deep changes in all the meaningful dimensions of human activity, and in the way that countries and individuals relate to one another. Such global disruption would affect not only the balance of global and regional power, and the levels of confidence between states, but also the legal framework that regulates international relations. Implications would reach military affairs, the global economy and finance, the international trade, and consequence of panic and chaos, the behavior of individuals and societies. It is evident that one single act can unleash terror as never seen before.