N. Korea Unveils Video Footage Showing SLBM Attack on Washington
Yonhap News
A North Korean Web site unveiled video footage on Saturday in which its submarine-launched ballistic missile scorches Washington D.C., ratcheting up its provocative acts in defiance of international pressure. The 4-minute long footage, uploaded on the website of dprktoday.com, one of the North's propaganda sites for outside online users, shows an SLBM, after re-entering the earth's atmosphere from outer space, hitting the U.S.' capital.
Nuclear Security: A Vital Goal But a Distant Prospect
R. Jeffrey Smith | Center for Public Integrity
President Obama set a high foreign policy bar five months after his election by describing nuclear terrorism as “the most immediate and extreme threat to global security,” and by promising to lead an international effort to lock down all vulnerable nuclear material worldwide within four years. In so doing, he rhetorically placed the need to bottle up loose nuclear weapons or their sparkplugs — the fissile materials that make them go bang — even higher on the list of his priorities than slowing climate change, stopping an Iranian nuclear weapon, or brokering a historic Middle East peace deal.
U.S. Beefs Up Cyber Defenses to Thwart Hacks of Nuclear Arsenal
Benjamin D. Katz | Bloomberg
The U.S. military is beefing up cyber defenses to counter threats by hackers trying to gain access to nuclear missiles and other weapons. Amid growing concerns about cyber attacks from Russia, China and groups such as Islamic State, the U.S. is seeking $34.7 billion through 2021 to boost cyber-security capabilities. Meanwhile, the U.K. has set aside 1.9 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) from its military budget for spending on cyber security over the next five years, on top of 860 million pounds spent since 2011, according to the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence.
Nuclear Safety Upgrades Post-Fukushima Cost $47 Billion
Barrel Blog
Five years after the accident at Fukushima I in Japan resulted in three reactor meltdowns, the global nuclear industry is spending $47 billion on safety enhancements mandated after the accident revealed weaknesses in plant protection from earthquakes and flooding. This is according to a Platts review put together by Steven Dolley in DC, Benjamin Leveau in London, Yuzo Yamaguchi from Tokyo, as well as Platts correspondents in Sweden, South Korea and China.
Nikki Haley: Keep Japan's Plutonium Out of South Carolina
Jeremy Diamond | CNN
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is demanding the Department of Energy stop a planned shipment of nuclear material from reaching her state's shores. Haley urged Secretary Ernest Moniz in a letter Wednesday to "stop shipment or re-route" about 730 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium from Japan destined for a nuclear storage and processing site in her state, according to a copy of the letter Haley's office provided to CNN.
India to Join Three ‘Gift Baskets’ at Final Nuclear Security Summit
Devirupa Mitra | Wire
At the last ever Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) from March 31-April 2, India will join three ‘gift baskets’ to disrupt transnational nuclear smuggling networks, as well as to set up an informal structure to sustain the momentum after the NSS process ends. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the two-day NSS in Washington, which will begin with a dinner hosted at the White House for 53 world leaders and heads of four international organisations on the evening of March 31.