North Korea Launches Ballistic Missiles as Kim Jong Un Visits Russia for Summit
Jeongmin Kim | NK News
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from Pyongyang into the East Sea (Sea of Japan), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said late Wednesday morning. It marks the DPRK’s first missile launch while leader Kim Jong Un is out of the country, the unification ministry confirmed to NK News…The launches come as leader Kim Jong Un visits Russia for an expected summit with Vladimir Putin. One expert pointed out that the launch in the absence of the leader is part of a recent trend that follows the evolution of North Korea’s defense strategy over the past few years.
No Sign of Kim Jong Un on His Russian Travels as Seoul Expresses Concern Over Meetings with Putin
KIM TONG-HYUNG AND DASHA LITVINOVA | Associated Press
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was expected to tour a Russian plant that builds fighter jets and visit the country’s Pacific Fleet, but his exact whereabouts remained uncertain Thursday following a summit at which he expressed unconditional support for Moscow…Putin told Russian state TV after the summit that Kim will travel to two more cities in Russia’s Far East on his own, flying to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he will visit an aircraft plant, and then go to Vladivostok to view Russia’s Pacific Fleet, a university and other facilities.
Palisades Restart Takes 'Giant Step' with Holtec-Wolverine Deal
World Nuclear News
Under the multi-decade agreement, Wolverine commits to purchasing two-thirds of the power generated from a reopened Palisades, with Wolverine's partner Hoosier Energy purchasing the balance. It also includes a "contract expansion provision" to include one or two small modular reactors that Holtec plans for the site.Holtec International CEO Kris Singh said: "We are well aware that, although we see no real obstacles ahead, re-powering of a dormant plant such as Palisades would be a feat that has never been achieved before. Hopefully, the Palisades revival would encourage our allies, Germany and Japan, who have many dormant nuclear plants, to adopt a similar course."
Westinghouse VVER-440 Fuel Loaded at Ukraine’s Rivne NPP
Nuclear Engineering International
The first VVER-440 fuel produced by US-based Westinghouse at its Swedish facility has been loaded into one of the reactors at Ukraine’s Rivne NPP. It was not clear which of the units – 1 or 2 – received the fuel, which reportedly will initially be mixed with the existing fuel supplied by Russia’s TVEL. Ukraine’s target, however, is to end the use of Russian-supplied fuel as soon as possible.
US-Russia Nuclear Arms Control Talks `Without Preconditions’: Somebody Has to Make the First Move
Thomas Countryman | Just Security
Giving Moscow a short paper — not a draft treaty, but a proposal for starting a discussion — should not be as difficult as it seems to have become. “Without preconditions” ought to be combined with the phrase “without complications.” Adding layers of other bilateral concerns to an already complex technical discussion is a formula for never getting started. Accordingly, a U.S. proposal for initiating a dialogue should avoid seeking to load the discussion with other issues, particularly all issues related to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Missing Escalation in Ukraine: In Defense of the West’s Go-Slow Approach
Austin Carson | Foreign Affairs
Eighteen months after the war began, it is time to take stock of its unusual escalation dynamics. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly hinted that he might go nuclear, raising the prospect that tactical nuclear weapons could be used to destroy military targets, kill Ukrainian civilians, or make a show of force in an uninhabited area. Yet he has not done so. Beyond this most conspicuous missing form of escalation, there are other realms in which various parties have shown restraint—for instance, in the scope of NATO’s surveillance flights or in the details of Russian operations in the Black Sea. Despite ample opportunity to intensify hostilities or to expand the geographic scope of the war, Russia, Ukraine, and Ukraine’s allies have mostly chosen not to do so.