North Korea Says US Must Choose “Christmas Gift” as Nuclear Diplomacy Deadline Nears
CBS News
North Korea on Tuesday repeated its assertions the Trump administration is running out of time to salvage nuclear negotiations. A statement attributed to a senior diplomat said it was entirely up to the United States to choose what "Christmas gift" it gets from the North. The statement came as North Korea continues to dial up pressure on Washington and Seoul ahead of leader Kim Jong Un's end-of-year deadline for the U.S. to offer mutually acceptable terms for a deal. Ri Thae Song, a vice foreign minister handling U.S. affairs, accused Washington of repeating talk offers aimed at buying time without offering real solutions. Ri reiterated earlier North Korean statements that the country has no intentions to continue the nuclear diplomacy unless it gets something substantial in return. “What is left to be done now is the U.S. option and it is entirely up to the U.S. what Christmas gift it will select to get.” After the North tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile in July 2017, Kim called the missile a “package of gifts” to the Americans for their Fourth of July holiday.
Iran, Cut Off From Vital Cash Reserves, Is Approaching Economic Peril, US Says
Ian Talley | Wall Street Journal
While Iran’s sanction-battered economy has sparked protests across the nation, U.S. officials cite new intelligence suggesting Tehran’s finances are more dire than previously thought and are bringing it closer to a financial crisis. Tehran’s sophisticated sanction-evasion efforts have offset some of the losses from plummeting oil exports due to global U.S. sanctions pressure. But according to new U.S. financial intelligence, the government is scraping the barrel on foreign-exchange reserves, a critical indicator of the country’s ability to control economic forces and to import equipment and supplies. That shortfall, combined with the oil drop-off and a widening trade deficit, puts Iran in even greater economic duress than in 2013, when the government of President Hassan Rouhani was pressured into starting official nuclear negotiations with global powers, U.S. officials say. The new U.S. assessment suggests Iran is approaching a point where it confronts a choice between returning to negotiations or lashing out with new attacks on U.S. allies and global energy supplies, U.S. officials and experts said.
Iran Proposes Rouhani’s Visit to Japan Amid Nuclear Impasse
Reuters
Iran has proposed President Hassan Rouhani visit Japan, a U.S. ally which also has close relations with Tehran, to try to resolve Iran’s nuclear impasse with Washington, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday. Citing a senior diplomatic source, Kyodo said Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs Abbas Araqchi had relayed the proposal to Japan during a two-day visit to Tokyo as a special envoy of Rouhani. “Iran is seen as hoping to realize such a visit at an early date while Japan is expected to examine it carefully,” it said. Japan maintains friendly ties with both the United States and Iran and has previously tried to ease tension between the two countries, which severed diplomatic relations shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has forged warm relations with Trump, traveled to Iran in June to persuade Iran and the United States to resume direct talks and dial down tension. Iran has ruled out talks with Washington unless it returns to the nuclear deal and lifts all sanctions on Iran.
Russia Wants Deals on Arms Control and Nuclear, Says Trump
Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Russia wanted to agree deals on arms control and nuclear and that he was willing to bring China into those either now or later. In Britain for a meeting of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance, Trump said: “I have to say this, Russia wants to make a deal on arms control ... Russia wants to make a deal as recently as, like, two weeks ago. Russia wants very much to make a deal on arms control and nuclear.” “We’ll also certainly bring in ... China. We may bring them in later, or we may bring them in now.”
Nuclear-Capable Air-Launched Ballistic Missile Tested Over the Barents Sea
Thomas Nilsen | Barents Observer
The Kinzhal missile was launched from a MiG-31K taking off from Olenegorsk airbase on the Kola Peninsula. The missile changes the military power-balance in the north due to its range, speed and ability to overcome any known missile defence systems. Kh-47M2 Kinzhal (NATO name SA-N-9 Gauntlet) is one of the six new strategic nuclear weapons under development in Russia. “The test took place in mid-November. The missile was launched at a ground target located at the Pemboy training ground from a MiG-31K carrier plane, taking off from Olenegorsk airfield,” a military source said to news agency TASS. According to a TASS report from July, the Kinzhal has a range of 2.000 kilometres when carried by a MiG-31 and about 3.000 kilometres if carried by a Tu-22M3 long-ranged bomber. As previously reported by the Barents Observer, the MiG-31 will also serve the new airfield currently under construction at Nagurskoye base at Franz Josef Land. Deployed at aircraft taking off from the Kola Peninsula, the Kinzhal gives Russia a deterrence measure against any NATO surface warships in the bastion area.
Germany Is Closing All Its Nuclear Power Plants. Now It Must Find a Place to Bury the Deadly Waste for 1 Million Years
Sheena McKenzie | CNN
Where do you safely bury more than 28,000 cubic meters -- roughly six Big Ben clock towers -- of deadly radioactive waste for the next million years? This is the "wicked problem" facing Germany as it closes all of its nuclear power plants in the coming years, according to Professor Miranda Schreurs, part of the team searching for a storage site. Experts are now hunting for somewhere to bury almost 2,000 containers of high-level radioactive waste. The site must be beyond rock-solid, with no groundwater or earthquakes that could cause a leakage. Germany decided to phase out all its nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, amid increasing safety concerns. The seven power stations still in operation today are due to close by 2022. With their closure comes a new challenge -- finding a permanent nuclear graveyard by the government's 2031 deadline. Next year the team hope to have identified potential storage sites in Germany (there are no plans to export the waste). It's a mission that stretches beyond our lifetimes -- the storage facility will finally be sealed sometime between the years 2130 and 2170.