Strengthen ROK-U.S. Alliance by Fixing Nuclear Energy Cooperation
Toby Dalton | Hankyoreh
There is understandable interest and anxiety in South Korea about the policies that the incoming administration of President-elect Biden will pursue toward the Korean Peninsula. Top of the list is how Biden plans to pursue “principled diplomacy” toward North Korea, followed closely by thorny negotiations over the Special Measures Agreement for military cost sharing. But Seoul and Washington should not lose sight of another challenging issue in ROK-US relations that needs critical attention: rebuilding cooperation on nuclear energy. The conclusion in June 2015 of a new, ROK-US agreement on peaceful nuclear cooperation was met with relief by both governments. After several years of contentious negotiations, the agreement permitted both sides to move past a few key sticking points that threatened to disrupt relations.
EU Foreign Ministers Pave Way for Revival of Iran Nuclear Deal
Patrick Wintour | Guardian
EU foreign ministers have agreed not to set fresh preconditions on a revival of the Iran nuclear deal, believing Tehran and Washington should be able to come back into full compliance with the agreement without at this stage needing to accept to extend or strengthen it. The step removes one of the potential roadblocks to Iran coming back into compliance with the existing deal, so long as the US lifts its sanctions and complies with UN resolutions. The UK is understood to believe the issue of extending the deal need not be raised until “significant progress” has been made on the US and Iran coming back into compliance.
Nuclear Weapons Agency Breached Amid Massive Cyber Onslaught
Natha Bertrand and Eric Wolff | POLITICO
The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks as part of an extensive espionage operation that has affected at least half a dozen federal agencies, officials directly familiar with the matter said. On Thursday, DOE and NNSA officials began coordinating notifications about the breach to their congressional oversight bodies after being briefed by Rocky Campione, the chief information officer at DOE. They found suspicious activity in networks belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation at NNSA, and the Richland Field Office of the DOE.
U.S. Nuclear Submarine Transits Strait of Hormuz Amid Tensions
AP
An American nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine traversed the strategically vital waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula on Monday, the U.S. Navy said, a rare announcement that comes amid rising tensions with Iran. The Navy’s 5th Fleet based in Bahrain said the Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Georgia, accompanied by two other warships, passed through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passageway through which a fifth of the world’s oil supplies travel. The unusual transit in the Persian Gulf’s shallow waters, aimed at underscoring American military might in the region, follows the killing last month of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian scientist named by the West as the leader of the Islamic Republic’s disbanded military nuclear program.
Mysterious N. Korea Site May be Building Nuclear Components, Report Says
Josh Smith | Reuters
A mysterious North Korean facility may be producing components for building nuclear bombs, a new report suggests, offering clues to understanding the site near the capital that has perplexed experts and policymakers. The nondescript cluster of buildings called Kangson on the southwest outskirts of Pyongyang was first publicly identified in 2018 by a team of open-source analysts as the possible location of a facility for secretly enriching uranium, a fuel for nuclear bombs. But the report by North Korea watchers at the 38 North project, reviewed by Reuters before its release on Friday, says satellite imagery points to the facility making components for centrifuges, the high-tech spinners used to enrich uranium, rather than enriching the fuel itself.
Iran is Building Something New at an Underground Nuclear Site
CBS News
Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the U.S. over its atomic program, satellite photos obtained Friday by The Associated Press show. Iran has not publicly acknowledged any new construction at Fordo, whose discovery by the West in 2009 came in an earlier round of brinkmanship before world powers struck the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. While the purpose of the building remains unclear, any work at Fordo likely will trigger new concern in the waning days of the Trump administration before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Already, Iran is building at its Natanz nuclear facility after a mysterious explosion in July there that Tehran described as a sabotage attack.