U.S. Policy Should Reflect Its Own Quiet Acceptance of a Nuclear North Korea
Toby Dalton and Ankit Panda | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
There can be no doubt that North Korea possesses deliverable nuclear weapons. Six nuclear weapon test explosions and the launching of numerous types of missiles to carry them have made this quite clear. It is equally clear that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has no intention to negotiate surrendering his nuclear arsenal…Despite this reality, and amid expectations of a seventh North Korean nuclear test, a growing debate in Washington and Seoul centers on whether it is time to accept North Korea as a nuclear state. This has the appearance of semantics—because the weapons exist and we cannot remove them without triggering a nuclear war—but the stakes are much more significant.
C.I.A. Director Warns Russian Counterpart Against Using Nuclear Weapons
Julian E. Barnes, Jim Tankersley and Edward Wong | The New York Times
The head of the Central Intelligence Agency warned his Russian counterpart against using nuclear weapons in a face-to-face meeting on Monday in Turkey, White House officials announced, part of the Biden administration’s effort to reduce the threat of escalation in the war in Ukraine…Mr. Burns’s meeting was not an attempt to negotiate with Russia over the end of the war — American officials have repeatedly insisted no peace talks will be conducted without the involvement of Ukraine’s government. The discussions, instead, were almost entirely focused on the threat of nuclear escalation, these officials said.
Biden Says China Must Try to Prevent a North Korea Nuclear Test
Nandita Bose and Simon Lewis | Reuters
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday he told Chinese President Xi Jinping that Beijing has an obligation to try to talk North Korea out of resuming nuclear testing, although it was unclear whether China would be able to sway Pyongyang. Biden met with Xi for more than three hours ahead of the G20 summit in Bali, their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took power last year. He told a news conference afterwards he had warned Xi the United States would do what it needs to do to defend itself and allies South Korea and Japan in the event of North Korea resuming testing of nuclear weapons, something Pyongyang has not done since 2017.
North Korea Sees New Opportunities in ‘Neo-Cold War’
Choe Sang-Hun | The New York Times
Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on. China has doubled down on its promise to take Taiwan. In the United States, clashes between Democrats and Republicans have hardened political divisions. With the Biden administration occupied on multiple fronts, North Korea, a tiny, isolated nation of 25 million people, has seemed determined to make Washington pay attention, its leader, Kim Jong-un, warning that the United States should no longer consider itself a “unipolar” superpower in a new “cold war.” …With Russia hinting at threats to use nuclear weapons and relations between Washington and Beijing worsening, Mr. Kim most likely senses opportunity: In an increasingly destabilized world, there is no better time to test his weapons, show off his advancing technology and provoke his enemies with virtual impunity while trying to gain diplomatic leverage.
U.S., EU Powers Push IAEA Board to Order Iran to Cooperate Urgently
Francois Murphy | Reuters
The United States, Britain, France and Germany want the U.N. nuclear watchdog's board to pass a resolution calling it "essential and urgent" for Iran to explain uranium traces found at three undeclared sites, their text seen by Reuters showed. The draft resolution was sent to other countries on the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors on Friday ahead of a quarterly meeting that starts on Wednesday. It also comes the day after the IAEA issued a report, also seen by Reuters, on the years-long investigation into the traces.
What our Nuclear History Means for Indigenous Food
Laicie Heely | Things That Go Boom Podcast
On the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, endangered plants bloom on the shrubsteppe. The Yakama Nation signed a treaty in 1855 to cede some of its lands to the US government. The treaty promised that the Yakama people could continue to use their traditional territory to hunt and fish. But in 1943, those promises were broken, as Hanford became a secretive site for nuclear plutonium production. Today, Hanford is one of the world’s most contaminated sites, and the cleanup will take generations. As more ceded lands have been encroached on by agriculture and development, the Hanford land is home to an ugly irony: Untouchable by outsiders — but unsafe for members of the Yakama Nation to fully practice their traditions.