North Korea Believed to Test New Rocket Engine to Provoke US
Hyung-Jin Kim and Kim Tong-Hyung | AP
A day after North Korea said it had performed a “very important test” at its long-range rocket launch site, there is wide speculation that it involved a new engine for either a space launch vehicle or a long-range missile. Whatever it was, the North Korean announcement suggests that the country is preparing to do something to provoke the United States if Washington doesn’t back down and make concessions in deadlocked nuclear negotiations. According to the North’s Academy of National Defense Science, the test was conducted on Saturday at its Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in the northwest, where North Korea has conducted banned satellite launches and missile engine tests in recent years. When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in last year, he promised to dismantle this facility, better known as the Tongchang-ri site outside North Korea, as part of steps toward disarmament. The latest test lends credence to widespread skepticism about Kim’s seriousness in his commitment to denuclearization that he repeated during meetings with Trump and Moon. While no rocket or weapons launch from North Korea was detected over the weekend, many foreign experts speculate that North Korea tested a new high-thrust engine, which is needed to launch bigger, more powerful rockets.
Resumed North Korean ICBM Testing: Possible Technical Objectives
Vann H. Van Diepen | 38 North
On December 7, North Korea claimed to have conducted a “very important test” at its Sohae Satellite Launching Station that “will have an important impact on changing the strategic position of the DPRK.” The North Koreans did not describe what was tested, but prior open-source imagery suggests it was a static (ground) test of a large liquid-propellant rocket engine. This article considers the possible technical objectives that North Korea might pursue if ICBM launches are resumed, within the political parameters set by the regime. Its principal conclusions are that North Korea is most likely to seek to improve the reliability and operational effectiveness of the Hwasong-15/KN-22 with a single warhead (rather than multiple warheads), that improving accuracy is unlikely to be an objective for a near-term ICBM test campaign, that the DPRK may not demonstrate missile defense penetration aids in flight tests (either because it cannot properly evaluate such tests or in order to conceal its penetration aid [penaid] capabilities) and that a next round of ICBM testing is unlikely to feature new types of ICBM systems.
Amid Trump Impeachment Fury, US and Russia Expected to Talk Arms Control
Charles Maynes | Voice of America
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov heads to Washington for hastily scheduled meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and, possibly, President Donald Trump, on Tuesday. While a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said the mission’s purpose would be to discuss “important issues” in U.S.-Russian relations, White House officials are signaling arms control will top the agenda, along with discussions aimed at bridging differences between Washington and Moscow over Syria and Ukraine. The idea for the talks appears to have been jumpstarted by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, when the Russian leader said Moscow was eager to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty by the end of this year “without any preconditions.” Indeed, White House officials said Lavrov’s visit could include a meeting with the President — to reciprocate a courtesy extended by President Putin to Secretary Pompeo during his last visit to Moscow, says White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.
Defense Policy Bill Creates Space Force, Sidesteps Border Wall Controversy
Joe Gould | Defense News
Lawmakers involved in annual defense authorization negotiations finalized a sweeping deal late Monday that creates a new Space Force among other policies, but it dropped contentious border wall restrictions and several other provisions favored by progressives. The 3,488-page compromise bill, which supports $738 billion in defense spending for 2020, left out limits on the border wall, low-yield nuclear weapons and the president’s authorization to wage war on Iran. In settling a conference report, congressional leaders rejected language from House Democrats to cut $30 million for the deployment of a low-yield variant of a submarine-launched warhead called the W76-2. Still, the bill does include language requiring congressional notification and a 120-day waiting period before the president gives notice of his intent to withdraw from the New START and Open Skies treaties.
Iran Boasts It Will Soon Unveil New Nuclear Centrifuges, Power Plant
Times of Israel
Iran is set to unveil at least 50 new nuclear-related “products,” including new centrifuge systems and a heavy water power plant in 2020, boasted an Iranian official on Saturday. Ali Asqar Zare’an, the assistant head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said in a ceremony near Tehran on Saturday that the country will announce “50 new achievements” on April 9, 2020 when Iran marks an annual National Nuclear Technology Day, “including new centrifuge systems and power plant [for] heavy water,” the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Zare’an also said that Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor “will have new activities on its agenda next year,” according to the report. Heavy water helps cool reactors, producing plutonium as a byproduct that can be used in nuclear weapons. Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran had breached another limit in its nuclear deal by stockpiling more heavy water than the accord allowed.
US Hits Setback in Bid to Shield Europe Against Iran Missiles
Anthony Capaccio | Bloomberg
A new Pentagon missile defense system is running at least two years behind schedule, delaying a project in Poland intended to intercept potential attacks on Europe by Iran, and the Missile Defense Agency blames the flawed performance of a key contractor. A U.S.-based unit of John Wood Group Plc has lost all but $300,000 of $12 million in performance awards it could have earned on a $186 million contract with the Army Corps of Engineers, according to the Pentagon. The delay has forced the Defense Department to seek an extra $90 million to complete the project. The Aegis Ashore system located at a military base in northern Poland, near the Baltic coast, was supposed to be operational by last December -- capable of detecting and intercepting intermediate-range Iranian missiles even though it might initially lack all the necessary crew housing and facilities. The U.S. has said the system is aimed at protecting more of Europe from potential Iranian ballistic missiles, not Russian intercontinental ballistic weapons. But Russia vigorously objected when the project was started in 2016 in Poland, a former satellite of the Soviet Union. “It would be accurate to say that the capability” for the system in Poland is “running at approximately two years behind schedule,” Mark Wright, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, said in an email.