Kim Jong Un’s Seoul Trip on Ice as Korean Detente Cools
Andrew Jeong and Dasl Yoon | Wall Street Journal
Cracks in the hard-won detente between North and South Korea are emerging, raising doubts about the path ahead after a year of warming ties. With nuclear talks with the U.S. at a standstill and sanctions thwarting progress on inter-Korean economic projects, signs of Pyongyang’s frustration point to new obstacles in the rapprochement.
N.K. Urges U.S. to Come to Senses, Stop Sticking to Sanctions
Yonhap News Agency
North Korea’s official news agency on Thursday strongly blamed the United States for the impasse in their nuclear talks, saying Pyongyang is waiting for Washington to come to its senses and take corresponding steps for its denuclearization measures, instead of sticking to sanctions. “Prospects of relations between the DPRK and the U.S. depend on when the U.S. will wake up from its foolish thought,” the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary. “The exit will be for the U.S. to build up stairs with measures corresponding to the steps we have taken and walk up the stairs.”
Alone at UN, Pompeo Blasts Nuclear Deal, but Searches for Common Ground on Missile Threat
Conor Finnegan | ABC News
The U.S. was alone at the United Nations Security Council in blasting the Iran nuclear deal Wednesday, as the U.N., European Union, and several European allies praised the agreement for preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and expressed disappointment in the U.S. decision to withdraw, one month after all of its sanctions snapped back into place on Iran. Speaking before the Security Council, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the U.N. to reimpose a ban on Iran on all ballistic missile activity, saying afterwards, “Now it's time for the Security Council to get serious about this real risk from proliferation from the Iranian regime.”
Iran Accuses U.S. of ‘Lies’ About its Missiles
Associated Press
Iran’s deputy U.N. ambassador is accusing the United States of what he says is “another series of lies, fabrications, disinformation and deceptive statements” about the Iranian ballistic missile program. Eshagh Al Habib told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that “Iran’s ballistic missile program is designed to be exclusively capable of delivering conventional warheads required to deter foreign threats.” He said it is not to deliver nuclear weapons. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier urged the council to again impose a ban on Iranian missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Test Validates New U.S. Interceptor for European, Japanese Missile Shields
Marcus Weisgerber | Defense One
The new interceptor missile that will arm land-based missile defenses in Europe and Japan has passed a key test, the Pentagon said Tuesday. In a late-night test on Monday, a Raytheon SM-3 IIA interceptor lifted off from Hawaii and shot down a mock intermediate-range missile over the Pacific, Missile Defense Agency officials said. “It really is a means to the next step and evolution of the system,” Mitch Stevison, vice president of strategic and naval systems at Raytheon Missile Systems, said Tuesday on a call with reporters.
The New Arms Race and Its Consequences
Ulrich Kühn | Valdai Club
With the decision by Donald Trump to pull out of the contested Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, another important piece of the European security architecture collapses. While experts and policymakers are still engaged in the ongoing blame game, perhaps we should try to look into the not too distant future and forecast what the end of INF could mean for European and international security.