China Challenges US to Cut Nuclear Arsenal to Matching Level
Reuters
China would “be happy to” participate in trilateral arms control negotiations with the United States and Russia, but only if the United States were willing to reduce its nuclear arsenal to China’s level, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Wednesday. Washington has repeatedly called for China to join in trilateral negotiations to extend New START, a flagship nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia that is due to expire in February next year. Fu Cong, head of the arms control department of Chinese foreign ministry, reiterated to reporters in Beijing on Wednesday that China has no interest in joining the negotiation with former Cold War-era superpowers, given that the U.S. nuclear arsenal is about 20 times the size of China’s.
The United States, China, and the Future of Arms Control
Ankit Panda | Diplomat
The Trump administration has made strategic arms control with China an important component of its diplomatic agenda with Beijing. As the end of the U.S.-Russia 2010 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) looms in February 2021, U.S. officials insist that any extension of that agreement for five years must include China. Beijing has, meanwhile, rejected U.S. calls to participate in arms control, citing its much smaller nuclear arsenal in absolute terms and by emphasizing a unique responsibility for Washington and Moscow to pursue arms control. To better understand the prospects for U.S.-China arms control, The Diplomat’s senior editor, Ankit Panda, spoke to Tong Zhao, a senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, based at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing.
US Remains Ready to Resume Nuclear Talks With North Korea, Envoy Says
Timothy W. Martin | Wall Street Journal
The U.S. stands ready to resume nuclear talks if North Korea is willing to make a deal, a top State Department official said Wednesday, though Pyongyang has signaled it is in no mood to come back to the negotiating table. In his first visit to Seoul this year, Stephen Biegun, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, reiterated Washington’s long-held goal in negotiations with Kim Jong Un’s regime: eliminate Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and bring peace to the Korean Peninsula. “Dialogue can lead to action, but action is impossible without dialogue,” said Mr. Biegun, speaking to reporters in Seoul after a meeting with South Korea’s nuclear envoy. Mr. Biegun also serves as the U.S. special representative for North Korea.
New Satellite Imagery Shows Activity at Suspected North Korean Nuclear Facility
Zachary Cohen | CNN
New satellite images obtained by CNN show recent activity at a previously undeclared North Korean facility that researchers suspect is being used to build nuclear warheads. The imagery, captured by Planet Labs and analyzed by experts at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, indicates that the facility, which is in the village of Wollo-ri near the country's capital city of Pyongyang and has not been previously disclosed to the public, is believed to be linked to North Korea's nuclear program and remains active. While the facility was identified in 2015 by researchers at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Lewis and his fellow researchers previously chose not to publicize the facility because they could not identify its specific role within North Korea's nuclear program.
House Panel Would Block Pentagon From Extra Sway Over Nuclear Weapons Budget
Joe Gould | Defense News
House appropriators on Tuesday approved a spending bill that would block plans from defense hawks to give the Pentagon a stronger hand in crafting nuclear weapons budgets. The House Appropriations Committee passed their Energy-Water bill, which contained the provision, by a voice vote. The $49.6 billion spending bill contained $13.7 billion for nuclear weapons accounts ― a $1.2 billion increase over fiscal 2020 that’s still $1.9 billion less than the president’s request. The bill would bar funding for the Pentagon-led Nuclear Weapons Council, and would prevent it from assisting with the budget of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semiautonomous agency under the Energy Department.
Leader of Missile Development Rises to North Korea’s No. 5
Kim So-hyun | Korea Herald
A septuagenarian former North Korean Air Force general credited for the country’s rapid missile development in recent years has risen to the regime’s No. 5 status, showed a photo released by Pyongyang’s state media on Wednesday. The rise of Ri Pyong-chol’s status indicates that Pyongyang will push ahead with strategic weapons development, including testing of submarine-launched ballistic missiles later this year, according to North Korea experts. “Ri is the key figure who led the advancement of the North’s nuclear and missile capabilities, especially missiles, since he took office as first deputy director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Workers’ Party in December 2014,” said Cheong Seong-chang, director of Sejong Institute’s Center for North Korean Studies.