President Trump Just Sidelined His Own Top Negotiator on North Korea
John Walcott | TIME
President Donald Trump has taken increased control of negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, sidelining his own top negotiator and dismissing the warnings of top intelligence and foreign policy advisors in the wake of last month’s failed summit in Vietnam, officials familiar with the developments tell TIME. In recent days, Trump shut down an effort by Stephen Biegun, nominally the administration’s lead negotiator with Pyongyang, to reestablish a back channel through the North’s United Nations mission in New York, according to four U.S. and South Korean officials.
U.S., N.K. Trying to Get ‘Sequencing’ Right in Nuclear Talks: Pompeo
Yonhap News Agency
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that the United States and North Korea are trying to get the “sequencing” right in talks to end the regime's nuclear weapons program and open a brighter future for the country. Pompeo made the remark in an interview with KCMO, a radio station based in Mission, Kansas, his home state, in the wake of North Korea’s threat to abandon the talks. Pompeo has rarely spoken of “sequencing,” although he appeared to refer to the Trump administration's insistence that North Korea give up its nuclear arsenal upfront.
Brazil Gunmen Shoot at Convoy Carrying Nuclear Fuel in Angra Dos Reis
BBC News
The convoy came under attack as it drove past a community controlled by drug traffickers in Angra dos Reis, a tourist city 145km (90 miles) from Rio. Police escorting the convoy responded and a shootout followed. No-one was injured or detained. The convoy reached the Angra 2 plant safely 20 minutes after the attack. The attack in the Rio-Santos highway is the latest in a series of violent incidents in an area popular with visitors.
U.S. Criticizes Russia as Serial Violator of Arms Control Treaties
Lisa Schlein | VOA News
A senior U.S. official accuses Russia of breaching several arms control treaties considered critical for maintaining world peace. Assistant Secretary of State Yleem Poblete spoke at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament as the United States assumed the rotating presidency of the body. Poblete made a blistering attack against what she called Russia’s aggressive, destabilizing activities. She cites Moscow’s invasion of neighboring countries, the annexation of Crimea and its failure to comply with arms control treaties as actions that threaten global stability.
Russia’s Top Diplomat Urges West to Resume Joint Arms Control Efforts
Tass Russian News Agency
Russia is calling on the United States and other Western countries to resume joint efforts in the arms control sphere, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a plenary meeting at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament on Wednesday. “I’m sure that all of us will have enough wisdom and strength to overcome the crisis, preserve and enhance modern system of international deals on arms control and nonproliferation, adding new agreements there,” Lavrov stressed.
The IAEA’s Diligent Investigation of Iran's ‘Atomic Archive’
Mark Fitzpatrick | IISS
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is ‘working diligently’ to pursue the voluminous documents that Israel last year obtained about Iran’s past nuclear-weapons-development efforts. So said U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson in her keynote presentation opening the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in Washington on 11 March.