Pompeo: U.S. Firms Could Invest in North Korea and Kim May Get ‘Security Assurances’
Guardian
The U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said on Sunday that if North Korea agrees to fully dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the Trump administration will allow the American private sector to invest in the country. Pompeo also hinted that the US might assure Kim Jong-un he can stay in power after any deal. Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Pompeo floated the possibility of “sanctions relief”, a remark that jarred a little with a comment by Donald Trump’s national security adviser. John Bolton told CNN’s State of the Union: “I wouldn’t look for economic aid from us.”
Snooping on Denuclearization
Jeffrey Lewis and David Schmerler | Arms Control Wonk
We read a lot of newspaper stories, some of which seem … unreliable. One of the reason we like OSINT, especially satellite images, is that we can actually see things that are happening. There are two sites where we’ve seen big changes recently—big changes that send contradictory messages. But together, we think they are really interesting. Do you want the good news or the bad news first?
U.S. says Iran Nuclear Inspections Must Continue
Andrew Beatty | AFP
The White House wants intrusive inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites to continue despite President Donald Trump. “We expect Iran will continue to implement the Additional Protocol and cooperate with the IAEA whether or not the JCPOA remains in place,” one senior administration official said.
Billions of Dollars Later, Energy Department Pulls Plug on Partly Built Nuclear Fuel Plant
Paul Sonne, Steven Mufson | Washington Post
The Trump administration is pulling the plug on a South Carolina facility designed to convert weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear reactor fuel that the U.S. government has already spent billions to partially build. Even though construction will end, the Trump administration wants to spend billions more to wind down the project and retrofit the plant for a new mission, namely, the production of triggers for nuclear weapons.
Lawmakers Take Step Toward Nullifying Nuclear Arms Treaty With Russia
Karoun Demirjian | Washington Post
The House Armed Services Committee has moved toward nullifying a 30-year-old nuclear-arms-control treaty with Russia, endorsing a measure that would entrust President Trump to decide whether the United States should scrap the deal. The Republican-led measure, which was added around midnight Thursday to a draft of next year’s defense spending bill, states that the United States will no longer consider the treaty binding without White House verification of Russia’s full compliance.
Despite Danger to Offutt Crews, U.S. House Drops New Open Skies Jets From 2018 Budget
Steve Liewer | Omaha World-Herald
The House Armed Services Committee has killed the Air Force’s request to spend $222 million to replace two of the 55th Wing’s oldest and most trouble-plagued reconnaissance jets.The Trump administration had asked for the money in its 2019 budget to buy a pair of new small airliners to fly aerial photography missions over Russia and Ukraine under the 1992 Open Skies treaty. They would replace the Wing’s two OC-135 Open Skies jets, which were built in 1961 and have suffered frequent mechanical breakdowns in recent years.