South Korea Slams Hegseth over North Korea 'Nuclear Power' Comments
Davis Winkie | USA Today
President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Pentagon upset key U.S. ally South Korea Tuesday when he labeled North Korea a "nuclear power" in a statement submitted to a Senate panel. Pete Hegseth made the comment in his written response to policy questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee released at the start of his Tuesday confirmation hearing. South Korean officials interpreted Hegseth's comment as showing possible U.S. recognition of North Korea as a nuclear weapons state, a status granted only to five countries under an international treaty barring nuclear weapons development.
Ji Da-gyum | The Korea Herald
Seoul’s Foreign and Unification ministries on Thursday unveiled their 2025 policy priorities, pledging to “proactively” prepare for the potential revival of US-North Korea nuclear talks under a second Donald Trump administration, while gearing up for the possible resumption of inter-Korean dialogue. Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho outlined key objectives during a New Year's policy briefing attended by acting President Choi Sang-mok. The Foreign Ministry has designated “policy coordination and cooperation with the new US administration” as its foremost foreign policy priority for the year, including “proactive preparation for potential US-North Korea dialogue through close collaboration” with Washington.
JON GAMBRELL | Associated Press
Israel supplied Iran with centrifuge platforms containing explosives for its nuclear enrichment program, a top Iranian official has acknowledged for the first time, underscoring the sophistication of sabotage programs targeting the Islamic Republic. The comments by Mohammad Javad Zarif, a former foreign minister who serves as vice president for strategic affairs for reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, appear aimed at explaining to the country’s disaffected public the challenges Iran’s government faces under crushing Western sanctions over the program. The comments also acknowledged details previously reported in Israel about a 2021 attack on Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.
Olena Goncharova | Kyiv Independent
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Jan. 15 sanctioned Russia's Federal State Unitary Enterprise Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, a Moscow-created entity that took control of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia power plant in the partially occupied oblast. The updated sanctions list also targets Vladislav Isaev, the company’s CEO since April 2024. In October 2022, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree establishing the Russian entity to oversee the captured power plant. This followed an order from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who declared the facilities of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant as Russian federal property.
TAKAYUKI TANAKA and MADOKA KITAMATSU | Nikkei Asia
Russia and China are leveraging their supply of low-enriched uranium for nuclear power plants to exert pressure on the U.S. and Europe as global demand for energy grows. Uranium fuel used in nuclear power plants is enriched with special centrifuges in a process that takes three to five years. Russian companies hold a roughly 40% global market share, leading in the field. Companies in the U.K., France and China -- all nuclear weapons states -- account for the rest. "There are a few, limited people in the world who know how to process uranium, as it's very dangerous and valuable information," said Indra Overland, a research professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.
Ryan Chan | Newsweek
The Chinese government has claimed that it has been "forced" to develop nuclear weapons as a United States official issued a warning about China's weapons of mass destruction program. "China's development of nuclear weapons is a historic choice forced to be made," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun at a press conference on Wednesday…While the spokesperson asserted that China "never engages in arms race[s] with anyone," the Pentagon assessed that as a part of a strategic competition with the U.S., China continues its rapid nuclear expansion that it has neither publicly or formally acknowledged or explained.