Enhancing the Northeast Asia Regional Security Eco-System: Issues and Approaches
Megan DuBois, Ankit Panda, and Toby Dalton, eds. | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Amid an exceptional regional arms buildup, spiraling U.S.-China tensions, and the unfolding consequences of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Northeast Asian states are grappling with an increasingly complex web of perceived security imperatives. Meanwhile, the emergence of new military technologies and capabilities threatens to destabilize the already precarious status quo. Now, more than ever, arrangements to manage regional security and mitigate worst outcomes are needed.
Civil Nuclear Energy Risks From Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Mark Hibbs | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Following from Russia’s invasion of and ongoing war against Ukraine, Ukraine’s civil nuclear energy power infrastructure poses risks that exceed those normally associated with nuclear installations and nuclear and radiological materials. The main concerns are that Russian forces may attack and/or wrest control of nuclear power reactors, directly or indirectly cause a serious or severe nuclear accident, and/or take other actions that may result in the exposure of Ukraine’s population to ionizing radiation.
Rising Oil Prices Buy Iran Time in Nuclear Talks, Officials Say
Parisa Hafezi | Reuters
Emboldened by an oil price surge since Russia invaded Ukraine, Iran’s clerical rulers are in no rush to revive a 2015 nuclear pact with world powers to ease sanctions on its energy-reliant economy, three officials familiar with Tehran’s thinking said. Last year, the Islamic Republic engaged in indirect talks with the United States as a route to cancelling U.S. sanctions that have gutted revenues and dramatically worsened economic hardships for ordinary people, stirring discontent. But the talks have been on hold since March, chiefly over Iran’s insistence on Washington removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Tehran’s elite security force, from the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.
North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile Amid Rising Animosities
Hyung-Jin Kim, Kim Tong-Hyung, and Mari Yamaguchi | Associated Press
North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters on Wednesday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to speed up the development of his nuclear weapons “at the fastest possible pace” and threatened to use them against rivals. The launch, the North’s 14th round of weapons firing this year, also came six days before a new conservative South Korean president takes office for a single five-year term. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missile was fired from the North’s capital region and flew to the waters off its eastern coast. It called North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches “a grave threat” that would undermine international peace and security and a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning any ballistic launch by the North.
Russian TV Shows Simulation of Britain and Ireland Wiped Out by a Nuke
Mary Ilyushina, Miriam Berger, and Timothy Bella | Washington Post
One of Russia’s top propagandists threatened Britain with annihilation by nuclear strike twice on his Sunday prime-time show — once by air and once by sea — ramping up the war of words against Britain over its vow to oust Russian forces from Ukraine. “Why threaten horizonless Russia with nuclear weapons when you sit on a small island?” Kremlin-allied Dmitry Kiselyov said during his Sunday program on Russian state TV in a segment he called “The Sinkable Island.” “Just one launch, Boris,” Kiselyov said, referring to the British prime minister, “and England is gone. Once and for all. Why play with us?” Kiselyov appeared to be accusing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson of threatening Moscow with a nuclear strike — a baseless assertion that nonetheless plays well with Russia’s base and its false narrative that the country faces existential threats and is under attack.
U.K. Says Nuclear Revival Will Be Different This Time Around
Rachel Morison, Alex Morales, and Ellen Milligan | Bloomberg
Britain is poised to usher in another nuclear renaissance, except this time the government says it will actually happen. A lot has changed since previous promises—the push to zero out emissions, the high political stakes to ensure energy security and a different financing model mean now is the time to build nuclear power stations, energy minister Greg Hands said. “We want the U.K. nuclear industry in a fantastic renaissance, to be able to avail itself of a variety of developers and financiers,” Hands said in an interview Tuesday in his office in Westminster. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put a premium on energy security, and one of the huge advantages of nuclear is that it is, very largely, homegrown.”