North Korea Has Been Testing Ballistic Missiles. So Why Won’t Trump Use the B Word?
Simon Denyer | Washington Post
Listening to President Trump, it is almost as though North Korea didn’t just conduct two separate missile tests this month, firing off at least three ballistic missiles in direct contravention of U.N. Security Council resolutions. “My people think it could have been a violation,” Trump said in a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday. “I view it differently.” On Saturday, the president’s national security adviser, John Bolton, told reporters there was “no doubt” that North Korea had violated the Security Council resolutions by firing off short-range ballistic missiles. Trump, however, counters that perhaps North Korean leader Kim Jong Un just wanted attention. “It doesn’t matter. All I know is that there have been no nuclear tests, there have been no ballistic missiles going out, no long-range missiles going out,” he said.
White House Says Trump Feels Good About Ties With Kim, His Denuke Commitment
Yonhap News Agency
The White House has said that U.S. President Donald Trump feels “good” about his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Kim's denuclearization commitment despite Pyongyang's recent missile launches. Presidential press secretary Sarah Sanders made the remarks on Sunday after Trump tweeted that Pyongyang’s launch of two short-range missiles on May 9, the second such military move in less than a week, involved only "small weapons," and expressed his "confidence" in Kim. “Look, the president's focus in all of this process is on continuing the very good relationship that he has with Chairman Kim. And he feels good that the chairman will stay firm with the commitment that he made to the president and move towards denuclearization,” Sanders said in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press. Trump's Twitter post came a day after his national security advisor, John Bolton, said that the North's launches “no doubt” violated U.N. Security Council resolutions -- remarks that contrasted with Trump who has apparently downplayed the tests in a show of desire to keep dialogue with the North alive.
Iran Hits Out at U.S. After Trump Nuclear Weapons Comment
Aljazeera
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has hit out at the United States after President Donald Trump said Washington was not looking for “regime change” in Iran but was only interested in preventing Tehran from getting nuclear weapons. In a Twitter post on Monday, Zarif insisted Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons and accused the US, which has recently beefed up its military presence in the Middle East, of causing regional tensions and “hurting the Iranian people”. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “long ago said we're not seeking nuclear weapons - by issuing a fatwa (edict) banning them”, Zarif tweeted.
IEA Rings Alarm Bell on Phasing Out Nuclear Energy
Geert De Clercq | Reuters
A steep decline in nuclear energy capacity will threaten climate goals and power supply security unless advanced economies find a way to extend the lifespan of their reactors, the International Energy Agency said. Nuclear is currently the world’s second-largest source of low-carbon electricity, behind hydropower, and accounting for 10 percent of global electricity generation. But nuclear fleets in the United States and Europe are on average more than 35 years old and many of the world’s 452 reactors are set to close as cheap gas and tighter safety requirements make it uneconomical to operate them. “Without policy changes, advanced economies could lose 25 percent of their nuclear capacity by 2025 and as much as two-thirds of it by 2040,” the IEA writes in its first major report about nuclear energy in two decades.
House Appropriators Take Aim at Some of the Pentagon’s Most Ambitious Tech Ideas
Patrick Tucker | Defense One
A $10 billion data cloud, giant ray guns in space, a sixth-generation fighter jet — these are just some of the biggest ideas out of the Pentagon in the last several years. But they’ve failed to impress the House Appropriations Committee, which released its version of the 2020 defense spending bill report yesterday.
Turkey Signals Delay in Russia Missile Order Opposed by U.S.
Selcan Hacaoglu and Firat Kozok | Bloomberg
Turkey’s most senior military official said there could be a delay in the delivery of a Russian missile-defense system that threatens to exacerbate tensions between Ankara and the Trump administration. “It may not happen in June but it will come in the upcoming months,” Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told Haberturk television late Monday. “The process has started.” The delivery of the S-400 missile batteries was originally scheduled for July until Russia offered to bring it forward by one month, according to Turkey. Turkish officials last week said they were working with Washington to determine a date for a possible visit by U.S. President Donald Trump, probably in July.