South Korea Debates Nuclear Options
Toby Dalton, Byun Sunggee and Lee Sang Tae
Following North Korea’s fourth nuclear test on January 6, 2016, several prominent politicians and pundits in South Korea (the Republic of Korea or ROK) renewed calls for Seoul to pursue its own nuclear option. Leading the chorus was Representative Won Yoo-chul, the National Assembly floor leader from the ruling Saenuri Party, who called on South Koreans to “think about our own survival strategy and countermeasures that include peaceful nuclear and missile programs for the sake of self-defense.”
North Korea Test-Fires Two Intermediate-Range Missiles, Both Fail: South Korea
Ju-Min Park | Reuters
North Korea fired what appeared to have been an intermediate range ballistic missile on Thursday but it crashed seconds after the test launch, South Korea's defense ministry said, the second such failure in the run-up to next week's ruling party congress. Isolated North Korea has conducted a flurry of missile launches, in violation of U.N. resolutions, and tests of military technology ahead of the Workers' Party congress that begins on May 6, and Thursday's launch looks to have been hurried, according to a defense expert in Seoul.
China Successfully Tests Hypersonic Missile
Bill Gertz | Washington Free Beacon
China successfully flight tested its new high-speed maneuvering warhead last week, days after Russia carried out its own hypersonic glider test, according to Pentagon officials. The test of the developmental DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle was monitored after launch Friday atop a ballistic missile fired from the Wuzhai missile launch center in central China, said officials familiar with reports of the test.
North Korea’s New Nuclear Sub Is Wickedly Unsafe
David Axe | Daily Beast
North Korea’s new sea-launched, nuclear-capable ballistic missile and the submarine that fires it are both technologically backward, unreliable, and wickedly unsafe for the unfortunate souls tasked with operating them. In short, Pyongyang’s new undersea nuke—which the hermit regime test-launched off the country’s eastern coast on April 23—is a dud by any normal standard.
Iran Nuclear Deal Fight Threatens Senate Spending Bill
Richard Cowan and Patricia Zengerle | Reuters
A battle over implementation of the Iran nuclear deal erupted on the U.S. Senate floor on Wednesday as Democrats maneuvered to block a Republican amendment stopping the Obama administration from buying heavy water from Tehran's nuclear program. By a vote of 50-46, Democrats and four Republicans banded together to stop a fiscal 2017 energy spending bill, in order to keep Republican Senator Tom Cotton from offering his amendment to the measure.
German Nuclear Plant Hit by Computer Viruses
BBC
Computer viruses have infected PCs used at a German nuclear power plant. The viruses were found on office computers and in a system used to model the movement of nuclear fuel rods. Power firm RWE said the infection posed no threat to the plant because its control systems were not linked to the internet, so the viruses could not activate. German federal cyber investigators are now analysing how the Gundremmingen plant became infected.