Amira El-Fekki | Newsweek
Iran said Tuesday that its stockpiles of enriched uranium were inaccessible as its top diplomat arrived in Cairo for crunch talks with the U.N.'s atomic watchdog over the future of its nuclear program… "In regard to uranium, we do not have access to it. It is in a location where access does not exist," Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani told reporters, without specifying where the material is being held, according to Iranian media.
Jonathan Tirone and Arsalan Shahla | Bloomberg
Iranian nuclear sites face a higher probability of renewed military attack unless international inspectors are allowed to resume their work, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog said, while suggesting a preliminary agreement could be getting closer. The International Atomic Energy Agency convened Monday in Vienna to discuss the ongoing crisis over how to monitor Iran’s atomic activities.
Park Boram | Yonhap News
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may have demanded that China make no mention of a goal of denuclearizing his country as a condition for his attendance at the recent military parade in Beijing, South Korea's unification minister said Monday. Minister Chung Dong-young raised the possibility during a parliamentary session after Kim's rare trip to China last week… He said from North Korea's perspective, Kim's attendance at the event may have represented "a significant symbolic diplomatic accomplishment."
Sheera Frenkel | The New York Times
Many tech companies and defense tech start-ups have recently conducted… drills to show off their technological prowess as they aim for the same goal: getting a piece of President Trump’s “Golden Dome” project, a hypothetical defense system that can intercept rockets and missiles… Companies chosen for Golden Dome are likely to become the new cornerstones of U.S. defense, military officials involved in the project said.
Wu Riqiang | Lawfare
In nuclear dialogues between China and the United States, U.S. participants often ask why it is so difficult to negotiate serious nuclear risk-reduction measures with Beijing—especially given that Washington managed to do so with Moscow during the Cold War. The assumption underlying this question is that classical arms control theory—derived from U.S.-Soviet experiences—is universally applicable. China is a different case.
Isobel Porteous | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which banned nuclear weapons in space, was born of the recognition that such weapons threaten to inflict indiscriminate, lasting damage on all orbiting satellites and on the domain of space itself. In the decades since, spacecraft have become critical to modern civilization. Accordingly, the stakes have grown dramatically. But international arms control measures—specifically space verification and monitoring for treaty compliance—have not kept pace.