Armoredd.com

by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) June 10, 2009

A fresh nuclear disarmament treaty between Moscow and Washington should not cut warheads further than 1,500 on either side, a senior Russian general says, news agencies reported Wednesday.

“Our position is that we must not go below 1,500 warheads,” General Nikolai Solovtsov, the head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, was quoted as saying by Interfax and ITAR-TASS news agencies.

“But the decision is up to the country’s political leadership,” he added.

The United States and Russia are seeking to negotiate a successor to a key Cold War-era disarmament pact, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), before it expires in December.

The outcome of their talks could have far-reaching implications for global security — and a successful result would boost US President Barack Obama’s stated vision of a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev agreed at their first meeting in April to pursue deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals, but the precise extent of the reductions is still a matter of discussion.

The last major disarmament deal between Moscow and Washington — the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) — imposed a limit of 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads on either side.

One big obstacle in the current talks is a controversial US plan to deploy missile defence facilities in eastern Europe. Moscow opposes the idea, but Washington says it is aimed at “rogue states” such as Iran, not Russia.

Last week another top Russian general, Nikolai Makarov, said Moscow would not reduce its nuclear arsenal unless the Obama administration made clear its plans for the missile shield, the brainchild of ex-president George W. Bush.

The next round of START talks is expected in Geneva in the second half of June.

Source: Space War

Interview with Gustavo Zlauvinen of the IAEA on Iran, Israel and nuclear weapons.

Source: The Real News

By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes, Associated Press Writer – 28 mins ago

SINGAPORE – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned North Korea on Saturday that the United States would respond quickly if moves by the communist government threaten America or its Asian allies. “We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia — or on us,” Gates said in prepared remarks to an annual international meeting of defense and security officials from Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Gates offered no specifics on how the U.S. might respond to North Korea, militarily or otherwise, and has said there are no current plans to deploy more U.S. forces to the region. An advance copy of Gates’ speech, was provided to The Associated Press.

Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said this week that the U.S. would need about 90 days to get more troops to the region if called up.

An estimated 28,000 U.S. troops already are stationed in South Korea, part of about 250,000 soldiers in the U.S. Pacific Command.

Gates’ speech delivered his harshest words to date to North Korea since Pyongyang detonated an underground nuclear device Monday, followed by several short-range missile launches over the last few days.

“The choice to continue as a destitute, international pariah, or chart a new course, is North Korea’s alone to make,” Gates said. “The world is waiting.”

The Pentagon chief focused most of his comments on U.S. priorities like high-seas piracy and the war in Afghanistan. Despite his warning, he appeared to take care in the half-hour speech to avoid ratcheting up the rhetoric in the weeklong war of words between North Korea and nations alarmed by its show of weaponry.

The U.N. Security Council is considering tough sanctions to punish North Korea for its nuclear test. In turn, North Korean leaders said they would respond in “self-defense” to the as-of-yet unspecified sanctions but did not say how.

Western security experts suggest that Washington’s best strategy may be to resist getting egged into action by North Korea’s talk.

“North Korea is talking war but planning how to best avoid it while maintaining the maximum international turmoil,” David Fulghum, senior military editor of Aviation Week, said in a statement. “The rationale, believe U.S. analysts and military officials, is that constant provocation of the West is the only road to relevance.”

Gates’ also spoke broadly about bolstering diplomatic relations with China and cited common challenges the two sometimes-adversaries face: counterterrorism, piracy, energy security and disaster relief. “It is essential for the United States and China to find opportunities to cooperate wherever possible,” he said.

He praised South Korea and Japan for becoming “economic powerhouses” that need little U.S. military assistance. Gates was to meet later Saturday with the two nations’ top defense officials in talks likely to focus on North Korea.

And Gates urged nations to remain involved in the war in Afghanistan, saying that extremists nestled in the rocky Afghanistan-Pakistan border are probably to blame for much of the terror threats throughout the rest of Asia.

“I know some in Asia have concluded that Afghanistan does not represent a strategic threat for their countries,” he said. “But the threat from failed or failing states is international in scope. … Failure in a place like Afghanistan would have international reverberations — and, undoubtedly, many of them would be felt in this part of the world.”

In talking about the Obama administration’s commitment to the region, Gates appeared to voice a veiled general apology for previous U.S. military decisions, but he avoided detailing them.

“In our efforts to protect our own freedom — and that of others — we have from time to time made mistakes, including at times being arrogant in dealing with others,” he said. “But we always correct course. Our willingness to do so is one of our enduring strengths.”

Source: Yahoo News

By Roxana Tiron
Posted: 05/27/09 09:13 PM [ET]

President Obama’s national security adviser on Wednesday said that North Korea’s recent nuclear detonation and subsequent missile tests are not “an imminent threat” to the safety and security of the United States.

Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, in his first speech on the administration’s approach to national security, said that the “imminent threat” posed by North Korea is that of the proliferation of nuclear technologies to other countries and terrorist organizations.

North Korea still has “a long way” to “weaponize” and work on the delivery of its nuclear missiles before they pose a threat to U.S. security, Jones said in a discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council.

“Nothing that the North Koreans did surprised us,” Jones said. “We knew that they were going to do this, they said so, so no reason not to believe them.”

But the Obama administration is in a tough position with regards to North Korea and in the coming weeks administration officials will try to reach a “global consensus” on how to handle North Korea, Jones indicated. Two key players on the issue, Russia and China, both showed a much harder line against North Korea’s most recent nuclear tests.

One of the crucial conclusions drawn after North Korea’s tests early this week is that there is a growing consensus that states such as North Korea “should not be permitted” to have those nuclear capabilities, Jones said. North Korea’s nuclear ambitions will be on the list of discussion for Obama’s visit to Russia in July, Jones said.

Meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry this week said the country “resolutely opposes” North Korea’s nuclear test. China agreed with the U.S., Japan and Russia to work toward a U.N. resolution censuring North Korea for its nuclear test and missile launches.

Jones, who has recently had a few detractors over whether he is visible and involved enough as Obama’s national security adviser, for the first time offered more details about his take on one of the most coveted foreign policy jobs in the administration. Jones said that the most difficult aspect of his job is trying to make sure that the White House handles issues and world events in the “correct sequence,” as well as get a sense of the “global rhythm” together with the U.S. national interests.

Jones said that the strategic issues are handled in order of priority and that the discussion—once the priority and policy need is set—starts from the “bottom up” first with policy working groups, moving up to the “deputies committees” and only if necessary and if the issues have not been worked out at the two lower levels do they get handled by the principles of the various agencies with jurisdiction over the issues.

When Obama decides to preside over a National Security Council meeting, “nobody gets out unchallenged,” Jones said.

“It’s a very good process,” he said, adding that by the time issues get to the principals levels (i.e. his level) they “have been thoroughly debated.” And from the National Security Council meeting with the president “nobody walks away from the table thinking that they have not been heard,” Jones added. He stressed that Obama wants to hear dialog, debate and opposing views when national security issues are discussed.

Jones also rejected former vice president Dick Cheney’s claim that dismantling Bush-era anti-terrorism policies had made Americans less safe.

“In my view, I firmly believe that the United States is not only safe but it will be more secure and the American people are increasingly safer because of the president’s leadership that he has displayed consistently over the last four months, both at home and abroad,” Jones said. The former NATO commander did not mention Cheney by name in his speech, but clearly indicated a rejection of the rhetoric of the former vice president, who in recent weeks has mounted a relentless attack on Obama’s national security decisions.

“He has said clearly and unequivocally that we are at war with terrorism and terrorism can take many facets,” Jones said.

Coinciding with Jones’ speech at the Atlantic Council, President Obama issued a memo seeking to end “the problem of over classification” of government information by setting limits on when information can be deemed secret.

The memo directs his national security adviser to recommend changes to the executive order governing information classification to “preclude classification of information where there is significant doubt about the need for such classification.”

The president also wants the adviser, Jones, to recommend rules that would hold officials accountable for their classification decisions. Obama’s memo also announces a National Declassification Center to make sure information is appropriately declassified.

Source: The Hill

By PARK CHAN-KYONG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 26 May 2009 15:28
Source: Defense News

SEOUL - North Korea reportedly fired two short-range missiles May 26, in a move set to heighten tensions after its latest nuclear weapons test drew global condemnation.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting to consider the options after Pyongyang’s test of a nuclear device May 25, which some estimates said was almost as powerful as the atom bombs that flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Council called the test a “clear violation” of international law and immediately began working on a resolution that could impose new sanctions on the secretive North, which has now tested two nuclear bombs in three years.

“This resolution should include new sanctions in addition to those already adopted because such behavior should have a cost and a price to pay,” said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the deputy French ambassador to the United Nations.

Following the U.N. condemnation, the North launched one ground-to-air missile and one ground-to-ship missile into the sea May 26 off its eastern coast near the city of Hamhung, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

“Intelligence authorities are analyzing the motives for the firing,” it quoted a South Korean government source as saying, adding that each missile had a range of 130 kilometers (80 miles).

In April it test-fired a long-range rocket that critics say was in fact a ballistic missile, and on May 25 it test-fired three short-range missiles after the nuclear blast.

Russia estimated the force of the May 25 underground nuclear explosion at up to 20 kilotons, far more powerful than the October 2006 test that announced the impoverished communist state had joined the club of world nuclear powers.

The North said the latest test would “contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism, and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and the region.”

North Korea has repeatedly said it needs a deterrent to ward off an attack by the United States, which it believes wants to topple Kim Jong-Il’s regime.

Almost six years of disarmament talks have not stopped its nuclear drive.

Some analysts have suggested that Kim is using the nuclear test to strengthen his hand at home, and so could be even less swayed than usual by more sanctions or international criticism.

The 67-year-old was widely reported to have suffered a stroke last August, prompting speculation overseas about the succession. The North’s position has noticeably hardened since then.

“This is part of Kim shoring up support for his regime among the inner circle and the public,” Peter Beck, a Korea expert at the American University in Washington, told AFP.

“The internal domestic dynamic is taking precedence over external factors.”

Even China, a permanent member of the Security Council and the North’s sole main ally, was strongly critical of the latest test - which North Korea had pledged to carry out because of previous censure from the Council.

“Disregarding the common objections of the international community, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has again tested a nuclear device,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The Chinese government expresses its resolute opposition to this,” it said.

U.S. President Barack Obama, whose initial overtures to the North since taking office in January have been met with official hostility from Pyongyang, condemned what he called its “reckless” atomic test.

“North Korea’s nuclear ballistic missile programs pose a great threat to the peace and security of the world,” he said.

The North Tuesday reiterated complaints that Obama is no better than his predecessor.

“The present U.S. administration is talking about what it called a ‘change’ and ‘bilateral dialogue’ but it is, in actuality, pursuing the same reckless policy as followed by the former Bush administration to stifle the DPRK (North Korea) by force of arms,” said the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun.

Foreign ministers from Asia and Europe meeting in Hanoi were set to condemn the nuclear test as “a clear violation” of six-party agreements and U.N. resolutions, according to a draft text.

South Korea announced it was joining the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, an international effort to curb trade in weapons of mass destruction that involves some 90 nations and includes military exercises.

North Korea had previously said that it would see the South’s participation as a declaration of war.

All content © 2009, Army Times Publishing Company

By VOA News
25 May 2009

North Korea says it successfully conducted an underground nuclear test that was more powerful than the country’s first test some two-and-a-half years ago.

The country’s official KCNA news agency reported that Monday’s test was “part of measures to bolster [North Korea’s] nuclear deterrent for self-defense.”

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency security session over the test. The news also shook South Korean financial markets with the main share index falling nearly four percent.

Tremor ‘detected’
Seismologists from the United States and South Korea said they detected a tremor in the northeastern part of the country a little before 0100 UTC, near where North Korea conducted its first test in October, 2006.

But U.S. State Department officials said they were not able to immediately confirm that a nuclear test occurred.

The Japanese government said it plans to respond to the North Korean test at the United Nations Security Council.

Pyongyang Reacts to International Criticism
Last month, North Korea threatened to restart reprocessing work at its once closed Yongbyon nuclear complex. The move was a retaliation to international criticism of its April launch of a rocket it says was fired to put a satellite into space.

The United States and other countries believe the rocket was a test launch for a ballistic missile.

In addition to threatening to restart its Yongbyon facility, North Korea has also dropped out of six-party talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs and said it will conduct nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

Washington’s top nuclear envoy, Stephen Bosworth, returned from a trip to the region earlier this month that included stops in China, Japan and South Korea.

Bosworth says Washington is ready for direct talks with Pyongyang. North Korea has yet to respond to the offer.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

19 May 2009, 1058 hrs IST, IANS

BHUBANESWAR: India on Tuesday successfully tested the nuclear capable Agni-II missile from a defence base in Orissa, official sources said.

The surface-to-surface missile with a range of over 2,000 km was test-fired from the Wheeler’s Island near Dhamara in the district of Bhadrak, some 150 km from here at 10.06am.

“It was a user trial,” the sources said, adding that the aim of the test was to give the Army confidence to fire the missile on its own.

The Agni II missile, which is a part of India’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, is 20 metres long.

Weighing 16 tonnes, the missile can carry a payload of around 1,000 kg and its range can also be increased to 3,000 km by reducing the pay load.

“It can be fired from both rail and road mobile launchers. It takes only 15 minutes for the missile to be readied for firing,” the sources said, adding that the Agni II-version of the Agni series of missiles was first test-fired in 1999 from the same location.

Source: The Times of India

Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:49am IST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration and its European allies are considering dropping a long-standing U.S. demand that Iran immediately shut down its nuclear facilities if it enters talks over its atomic program, The New York Times reported on Monday on its website.

The proposal would also allow Tehran to continue enriching uranium for some period during the talks and would be a sharp break from the Bush administration, which had demanded that Iran halt its enrichment activities, the report said.

Enriching uranium can produce fuel for a nuclear power plant or, if purified to a much higher degree, provide material for an atomic bomb. The West suspects Iran’s nuclear program is cover for building an atomic bomb but Tehran says it is to generate electricity.

The proposals, still under discussion, were aimed at drawing Iran into nuclear talks that it has so far shunned, the newspaper said, citing officials involved in the strategy sessions.

A senior Obama administration official cautioned that “we are still at the brainstorming level” and said the terms of an opening proposal to Iran were still being debated, the newspaper said.

The six major powers dealing with Iran, including the United States, met in London last week and invited Tehran to a new round of talks about its nuclear program.

The New York Times cited European officials as saying that in talks during Obama’s visit to Europe there was agreement that Iran would not accept the immediate shutdown of its facilities that the Bush administration had demanded.

Obama administration officials declined to discuss details of their deliberations, but said any new American policy would ultimately require Iran to cease enrichment, the newspaper said.

“Our goal remains exactly what it has been in the U.N. resolutions: suspension,” one senior administration official told the newspaper.

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

USA Today

PRAGUE (AP) — Declaring the future of mankind at stake, President Barack Obama said Sunday all nations must strive to rid the world of nuclear arms and that the U.S. had a “moral responsibility” to lead as the only country ever to use one.
Even as a North Korean rocket launch upstaged his ambitious, if not realistic, call to action in the heart of Eastern Europe, Obama dismissed those who say the spread of nuclear weapons cannot be checked.

“This fatalism is a deadly adversary,” he told a crowd of more than 20,000 in an old square outside the Prague Castle gates. “For if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.”

Calling nuclear arms “the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War,” Obama appealed to anti-nuclear activists in the United States and abroad while taking care to promise that America’s national security would not be compromised.

He chose as the venue for his address a nation that peacefully threw off communism and helped topple nuclear power Soviet Union. “Let us honor our past,” Obama said, “by reaching for a better future.”

Shifting on an eight-day European trip from the economic crisis to the war in Afghanistan and now nuclear capabilities, Obama said his goal of “a world without nuclear weapons” won’t be reached soon, “perhaps not in my lifetime.”

But he said his country, with one of the world’s largest arsenals and the only nation to have used an atomic bomb, has a “moral responsibility” to start taking steps now.

The nuclear-free cause is more potent in Europe than in the United States, where even Democratic politicians like Obama must avoid being labeled as soft or naive on national security matters. Indeed, Obama said surrendering nuclear weapons must be a global all-for-one, or not-at-all, endeavor.

“Make no mistake: As long as these weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary, and guarantee that defense to our allies,” said Obama, who promised to host a summit within the next year on nuclear weapons.

He also gave his most unequivocal pledge yet to proceed with a missile defense system in Europe while Iran pursues nuclear weapons, as the West alleges. That shield is to be based in the Czech Republic and Poland. Those countries are on Russia’s doorstep, and the move has contributed to a significant decline in U.S.-Russia relations.

In the interest of resetting ties with Moscow, Obama previously had appeared to soft-pedal his support for the Bush-era shield proposal. But he adopted a different tone in Prague.

“As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven,” Obama said, earning cheers from the crowd.

Hours before the address, an aide awoke Obama in his hotel room to tell him that North Korea had make good on its pledge to launch a long-range rocket. By lunchtime, the president had addressed it publicly nearly half a dozen times.

“Rules must be binding,” he said. “Violations must be punished. Words must mean something.”

“Now is the time for a strong international response,” he said.

On the broader issue, few experts think it’s possible to completely eradicate nuclear weapons, and many say it wouldn’t be a good idea even if it could be done. But a program to drastically cut the world atomic arsenal carries support from scientists and lions of the foreign policy world.

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was signed by former President Bill Clinton but rejected by the Senate in 1999. Over 140 nations have ratified the ban, but 44 states that possess nuclear technology need to both sign and ratify it before it can take effect and only 35 have do so. The United States is among the key holdouts, along with China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan.

Ratification of the test ban was one of several “concrete steps” Obama outlined as necessary to move toward a nuclear-free world, He also called for reducing the role of nuclear weapons in American national security strategy, negotiating a new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia, and seeking a new treaty to end the production of fissile materials used in nuclear weapons.

Obama said the U.S. will seek to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation treaty by providing more resources and authority for international inspections and mandating “real and immediate consequences” for countries that violate the treaty.

He offered few details of how he would accomplish his larger goal and acknowledged that “in a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up.”

To combat the risk from countries, and possibly terrorists, with nuclear weapons, Obama said he would:

— Immediately seek ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. Signed by Clinton, it was rejected by the Senate in 1999. Overall, 140 nations have ratified the ban. But they include only 35 of the 44 states that possess nuclear technology. The U.S. is the most prominent holdout.

— Undertake a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material worldwide within four years.

— Pursue by year’s end a new treaty with Russia to reduce the two nations’ nuclear arsenals.

— Build a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, including an international fuel bank, so countries can access peaceful power without increasing the risks of proliferation.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Fri Mar 27, 1:24 am ET
Yahoo News

BEIJING (AFP) – Authorities in China have ordered an all-out search for a missing nuclear scale that contained a dangerous radioactive component, state press said Friday.

The scale, used to make precision measurements, was found to be missing on Monday after workers began dismantling a cement factory where it was used in Tongchuan city in northwest China’s Shaanxi province, Xinhua news agency said.

A lead ball containing extremely dangerous Caesium-137 was a major component of the scale, it said.

Local government offices in Shaanxi could not be immediately reached for comment on the issue.

The report did not say how much Caesium-137 was missing but warned that only a tiny amount could damage the human nervous system and even lead to death. The material could also explode if it comes in contact with water, it added.

The provincial environmental protection agency and police have issued urgent orders to find the radioactive material which may have been buried in up to 5,000 tonnes of scrap waste from the factory, the report said.

In a later report, Xinhua said environmental officials had found Caesium-137 radioactivity at a steel refinery in Shaanxi’s Fuping county, but it was not immediately known whether it was from the missing material.

“Although radioactivity was detected at a steel refinery in Fuping county, it is not necessarily linked to the missing radioactive material,” the report quoted an environmental protection official as saying.

“We must make a full confirmation.”

The steel refinery had bought 265 tonnes of scrap metal from the dismantled cement factory and has already melted it down, the report said.

Police and environmental officials had spread out to all scrap metal yards and several steel refineries in the area and were testing for radioactivity, the report said.

25 Mar 2009, 0912 hrs IST, PTI
The Times of India

WASHINGTON: French Prime Minister Francois Fillone has conceded that his country is in competition with the US with regard to bagging commercial deals for the civilian nuclear plants in India.

“Yes, we are competing with the United States in terms of our nuclear agreement with India,” Fillone said on Monday in response to a question at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think tank.

“Let me tell you that this competition will go on to the end. That is to say, until one of us has won — or both of us maybe. There could be two winners. But we are often competing with the United States,” he said after his address to the Carnegie on global economic crisis.

Fillone said this means that both the countries have performing companies. Companies from both the US and France and other major powers are vying for a slice in the pie of what is estimated to be multi-billion dollar market in India.

“In terms of nuclear power, everybody knows that we are very performing. France chose a long, long time ago to use nuclear power. We have never changed. This choice of nuclear power allowed us to constantly improve on the efficiency of our nuclear systems both in terms of security and in terms of financial and energetic yield. We do not regret having made this choice today,” Fillone said.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Fox News

TOKYO — A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person certified as a survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings at the end of World War II, officials said Tuesday.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi had already been a certified “hibakusha,” or radiation survivor, of the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing in Nagasaki, but has now been confirmed as surviving the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier as well, city officials said.

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city. He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, city officials said.

“As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognized as a survivor of atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Nagasaki city official Toshiro Miyamoto said. “It’s such an unfortunate case, but it is possible that there are more people like him.”

Certification qualifies survivors for government compensation — including monthly allowances, free medical checkups and funeral costs — but Yamaguchi’s compensation will not increase, Miyamoto said.

Japan is the only country to have suffered atomic bomb attacks. About 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.

Yamaguchi is one of about 260,000 people who survived the attacks. Bombing survivors have developed various illnesses from radiation exposure, including cancer and liver illnesses.

Details of Yamaguchi’s health problems were not released.

Thousands survivors continue to seek official recognition after the government rejected their eligibility for compensation. The government last year eased the requirements for being certified as a survivor, following criticism the rules were too strict and neglected many who had developed illnesses that doctors have linked to radiation.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at a UN conference in Geneva, said the “right moment” had come for progress on nuclear disarmament, after Washington and Moscow agreed on a plan to renew the START treaty to cut nuclear stock.

Saturday 07 March 2009
By Yuka ROYER
France 24

AFP - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday the “right moment” had come for progress on disarmament, after Washington and Moscow agreed on a plan aimed at renewing the START treaty.

“The right moment has come today, for the first time after the end of the Cold War, for making real progress in resuming the global disarmament process on a broad agenda,” he told the 65-nation United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

“I am convinced that we should not miss this opportunity.”

Lavrov’s address to the conference came a day after his first meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during which both signalled a fresh start on missile defence and disarmament issues.

Clinton said Washington and Moscow have agreed to a plan aimed at renewing their Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which is due to expire by December 5.

The treaty, which was signed in 1991, committed both parties to cut their stock of arsenal, including reducing missiles to a maximum of 1,600 and warheads to no more than 6,000.

Lavrov told the conference he found the first contact with the new US administration “very promising.”

He also read out a statement from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who said Moscow is “open to dialogue and is prepared for negotiations with the new US administration.”

Medvedev saw nuclear disarmament as “fertile ground for a joint work” and said “constructive interaction in this field will contribute to the general improvement of the Russian-US relations.”

Lavrov also signalled that Moscow wanted to seek progress on disarmament through the conference, which has largely stalled over the past decade.

“Time has been lost, we are determined to work quite intensively with our partners from the United States and other states,” he told journalists after addressing the conference.

Wed Mar 4, 2009 4:52am IST

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear watchdog governors on Tuesday approved a deal allowing extra inspections of India’s atomic industry, a condition of a U.S.-led deal allowing New Delhi to import nuclear technology after a 33-year freeze.

Passage of an “Additional Protocol” somewhat expanding the International Atomic Energy Agency’s monitoring rights in India came a month after New Delhi signed a basic nuclear safeguards accord opening its civilian nuclear plants to U.N. inspections.

The 31-page protocol would broadly give IAEA inspectors more information on India’s nuclear-related exports, imports and source material, diplomats familiar with the issue said.

But some members of the 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors joined the consensus vote only with reluctance, they said.

Sceptics felt that while heightened U.N. safeguards were a net gain for a country outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), they could have been stronger had there been more time for negotiations, they added.

“Switzerland, Ireland, Cuba and South Africa protested that the agreement was handed to the board only two days ago, too late to thoroughly assess whether it will really contribute to disarmament,” one diplomat in the closed-door meeting said.

“It doesn’t because there are no provisions to ensure India cannot divert into its military nuclear sector nuclear materials and know-how it obtains abroad for the civilian sector.”

The protocol, entitled “Nuclear Verification — The Conclusion of Safeguards Agreements and Additional Protocols” — would give inspectors wider access to India’s programme but not as much as in countries that have signed the NPT.

“The agency will not mechanistically or systematically seek to verify information obtained. Verification activities in question are not linked to quantitative yardsticks like inventories of nuclear materials,” the pact’s preamble said.

“The frequency and intensity of (IAEA checks) shall be kept to the minimum consistent” with the aim of improving safeguards.

SUPPLIERS LIFT NUCLEAR BAN ON INDIA

IAEA oversight was stipulated when the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group agreed in September to lift a ban on nuclear trade with India, imposed after its first nuclear test in 1974 and for its refusal to join the NPT.

India, Pakistan and Israel are the only countries never to have never signed the NPT.

Washington pushed through the NSG “waiver” because this was indispensable to implementing its own 2005 nuclear cooperation pact to supply India with nuclear technology.

U.S. officials said the deal, a major plank in former U.S. President George W. Bush’s foreign policy, would forge a strategic partnership with India, help it meet soaring energy demand, reduce fossil fuel emissions linked to climate change, and open up a nuclear market worth billions of dollars.

Disarmament advocates complained that it undercut the NPT, meant to prevent the spread and production of nuclear weapons.

They fear Indian access to foreign nuclear materials could allow it to divert more of its limited indigenous supplies to its bomb programme and drive historical foe Pakistan into another arms race.

After its first nuclear test in 1974, India conducted a series of nuclear tests in 1998, prompting rival Pakistan to follow suit within weeks.

IAEA safeguards require India to open up 14 of 22 reactors to inspections by 2014. New Delhi must still specify which reactors will come under inspection, an Indian government official said last month.

India’s Additional Protocol lists some 100 nuclear-use materials and hardware to come under monitoring including entire reactors and heavy-water plants, reactor-core graphite, coolant and vacuum pumps, parts for fuel-producing centrifuges, spectrometers, uranium metal products and laser systems.

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

Tue Mar 3, 2009 2:27am IST

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia wants the United States to agree to limits on all types of nuclear weapons delivery vehicles in a new arms reduction pact that will replace START I, Russia’s foreign minister was quoted as saying on Monday.

Moscow and Washington are discussing ways to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) which will expire in December this year.

Finding a replacement to START I, the largest arms reduction treaty in history, is seen by both Moscow and Washington as an opportunity to make progress on cutting nuclear arsenals while improving ties that have been badly strained in recent years.

But the issue of the actual rockets and other means that can deliver nuclear weapons, such as bombs and artillery shells, is seen as a potential sticking point in the talks on a new treaty.

Russia would like to “preserve limits not only on warheads … but also limits on all types of delivery vehicles,” the RIA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying in Madrid.

Lavrov was quoted as saying the previous U.S. administration of President George W. Bush had tried to move away from limits on nuclear weapons delivery vehicles.

Analysts say Russia is worried by moves in the United States to convert nuclear delivery vehicles into conventional weapons and thus classify them as non-strategic weapons.

Russian officials say they want those converted weapons to be covered in a new agreement.

Lavrov said Russia was against automatically extending the START I treaty past its expiry date and he would discuss the ideas with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Geneva this week.

“We need to find a new agreement,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency.

The START I treaty was signed on July 31, 1991 by U.S. President George Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, five months before the fall of the Soviet Union.

The presidents used pens made from melted-down missiles to sign the treaty, which followed almost ten years of difficult negotiations.

“Those limits which were agreed in the current agreement today have long been implemented and more than implemented,” Lavrov said. “We and the Americans now have really much less than is allowed by the current agreement.”

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

The top U.S. military official said Sunday he believes Iran has enough fissile material to build a nuclear weapon, but the defense secretary said the Islamic Republic doesn’t have a bomb yet.

FOXNews.com
Sunday, March 01, 2009

The top U.S. military official said Sunday he believes Iran has enough fissile material to build a nuclear weapon, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Islamic Republic is a long way from having a bomb.

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency revised its assessment of Iran’s nuclear capabilitie, saying it was wrong in earlier reports about Iran’s ability to enrich enough uranium to make anuclear weapon.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “We think they do, quite frankly,” when asked Sunday about Iran’s capacity.

“Iran having a nuclear weapon I’ve believed for a long time is a very, very bad outcome for the region and for the world,” Mullen said.

But Gates said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Iranians are not close to getting a weapon at this time.

“They’re not close to a stockpile, they’re not close to a weapon at this point and so there is some time,” he said when asked whether Tehran could be deterred from pursuing its weapons effort.

Gates said the U.S. will continue to pursue sanctions on Iran while also howing an opportunity to engage with Europe as a means to “walk away from that program.”

“Our chances of being successful, it seems to me, are a lot better at $35 or $40 oil than they were at $140 oil because there are economic costs to this program, they do have economic challenges at home,” Gates said.

Mullen said he has not been given “any instructions one way or the other” on whether to continue working on an anti-ballistic missile shield that has been in development and was to be deployed in East Europe.

“There are an awful lot of reviews that are ongoing under President Obama, and there’s an awful lot on the — on all of our plates. So that’s a review that will, I think, take place. And over time, that’s much more a policy area than it is mine, per se,” he said.

Mullen said that the U.S. is also watching North Korea closely, but no decisions have been made on whether to rrespond to their preparations for a test missile launch.

“The president’s made no decision. Secretary Gates and I have made no recommendations. But it’s — it’s an area that we watch with great concern. And I would hope that North Korea would not be provocative,” he said.

Mullen spoke on “FOX News Sunday” and CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Submitted by SadInAmerica on 2009, February 26 - 7:18pm.
Know the Lies

A number of U.S. institutions with licenses to hold nuclear material reported to the Energy Department in 2004 that the amount of material they held was less than agency records indicated. But rather than investigating the discrepancies, Energy officials wrote off significant quantities of nuclear material from the department’s inventory records.

That’s just one of the findings of a report released yesterday by Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman that concluded “the department cannot properly account for and effectively manage its nuclear materials maintained by domestic licensees and may be unable to detect lost or stolen material.”

Auditors found that Energy could not accurately account for the quantities and locations of nuclear material at 15 out of 40, or 37 percent, of facilities reviewed. The materials written off included 20,580 grams of enriched uranium, 45 grams of plutonium, 5,001 kilograms of normal uranium and 189,139 kilograms of depleted uranium.

“Considering the potential health risks associated with these materials and the potential for misuse should they fall into the wrong hands, the quantities written off were significant,” the report says. “Even in small quantities normally held by individual domestic licensees, special nuclear materials such as enriched uranium and plutonium, if not properly handled, potentially pose serious health hazards.”

Auditors also found that waste processing facilities could not locate or explain the whereabouts of significant quantities of uranium and other nuclear material that Energy Department records showed they held. In another case, Energy officials had no record of the fact that one academic institution had loaned a 32-gram plutonium-beryllium source to another institution.

The audit was a follow-up to a 2001 probe that found similar record-keeping problems. “Key commitments made by the department were not completed nearly eight years after our earlier audit,” Friedman reported.

More than 100 academic and commercial institutions and government agencies lease nuclear materials that are owned by Energy. The department, along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is supposed to track these materials through the centralized accounting system known as the Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System, or NMMSS.

“Due to the inconsistencies documented in our report, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the department to accurately identify the type and quantity of its nuclear materials affected if an incident occurred at one of the sites whose NMMSS inventory we could not verify,” the inspector general stated in Monday’s report.

In a written response to the report, Glenn Podonsky, the chief health, safety and security officer at Energy, largely concurred with the findings and recommendations for improving inventory records.

Katherine McIntire Peters - February 24, 2009 - source GSN.NTI

By James Rupert

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — U.S. officials criticized a Pakistani court’s decision to free nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan from house arrest yesterday, five years after he admitted selling atomic bomb technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Hours after an ebullient Khan, 72, walked out of the gate of his villa to announce his liberation to Pakistani reporters, the U.S. State Department said he “remains a serious proliferation risk.” The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives called the decision “alarming.”

“The proliferation support that Khan and his associates provided to Iran and North Korea has had a harmful impact on international security and will for years to come,” a State Department spokesman, Gordon Duguid, told reporters in Washington. He gave no immediate indication of any U.S. action against Pakistan in response.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the government will “provide all requisite security” for Khan and “has taken all necessary measures to promote the goals of non-proliferation.”

In remarks broadcast live on local television, Khan expressed appreciation to President Asif Ali Zardari, saying “he knows my contribution to the country.” Khan said he plans to visit relatives in Pakistan and work to improve the country’s educational system.

Then-President Pervez Musharraf placed Khan under house arrest in 2004 after the International Atomic Energy Agency presented evidence of the nuclear technology sales.

Pardoned by Musharraf
Khan took full responsibility for the sales, saying on national television that Pakistan’s army, then headed by Musharraf, had no knowledge of them. Musharraf pardoned Khan the following day, avoiding a trial and sparing him imprisonment.

Pakistan has refused requests from the U.S. and the IAEA to question Khan about the extent of his activities and how he evaded international controls.

“Congress will take this into account as we review and create legislation on U.S.-Pakistan relations and the circumstances under which U.S. assistance is provided to Islamabad,” Howard Berman, the California Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

Some lawmakers are pressing for stricter conditions on military funding for Pakistan after the U.S. provided more than $10 billion since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, with what critics consider little effect on the fight against terrorism.

The house arrest order was relaxed last year and Khan was allowed to conduct some media interviews, in which he recanted his confession, saying he was a scapegoat. Opinion polls have named Khan as one of Pakistan’s most popular figures for leading the country’s development of atomic weapons.

Pressure on Government
Zardari’s coalition government, which defeated Musharraf loyalists in national elections last year, has been under pressure to free Khan, who applied to the High Court in Islamabad for the house arrest order to be lifted. There was no immediate indication whether Zardari or Pakistan’s military, which dominates national security policy-making, played a role in the release.

The decision to free the scientist “seems to be a negotiated arrangement” between Khan and the government, said Talat Masood, a retired army lieutenant general who is now an independent political consultant in Islamabad. “It will pacify many Pakistanis who still see Khan as a national hero, but cause apprehensions for the United States and the international community.”

The government “will try to reassure” other nations that Khan “will continue to have limits on his movement and his actual status won’t change very much,” Masood added.

‘Closed Chapter’
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement the “so-called A.Q. Khan affair is a closed chapter,” adding it is “counter- productive” to speculate on the court’s judgment.

“As far as I have been told, I will go anywhere in Pakistan without any restrictions and I will get whatever security that I had with me previously,” Khan told reporters, according to Agence France-Presse. “If I want to travel abroad, I will have to seek permission from the government.”

“The petitioner is declared a free citizen,” said a written order issued by the High Court, AFP reported. Government lawyers and lawyers representing the scientist addressed the court in a closed hearing, according to the report.

The U.S. last month said it is imposing sanctions on Khan as well as 12 associates and three companies allegedly connected to the scientist’s proliferation network.

The sanctions, which include an asset freeze, are part of an effort to ensure Khan’s smuggling network remains shut down, the State Department said Jan. 12.

Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s newly appointed envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is headed to the region next week for his first visit in the post. Holbrooke is charged with helping the administration formulate a new approach to the threats from al-Qaeda, the Taliban and allied groups based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 6, 2009 17:17 EST

IANS
First Published : 02 Feb 2009 09:55:00 PM IST
Express Buzz

VIENNA: India on Monday signed a key safeguards agreement with IAEA to allow inspection of additional civilian reactors, clearing the decks for supply of atomic fuel and technology by the international community after a 34-year-old nuke trade embargo was lifted last year.

The pact between the government of India and the UN atomic watchdog for the ‘Application of Safeguards to Civilian Nuclear Facilities’ was inked here by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei and Indian Amabassador Saurabh Kumar.

India currently applies inspection by the IAEA in six civilian nuclear reactors under safeguards agreements concluded between 1971 and 1994.

In future, additional reactors are expected to be brought under IAEA safeguards under the newly-signed agreement.

“The safeguards agreement, which is the result of several rounds of consultations conducted between India and the IAEA since November 2007, was approved by the IAEA Board of Governors in August 2008,” the IAEA said in a statement.

The agreement will enter into force once it was ratified by India, it said. The India-specific safeguards agreement (ISSA) was approved by the 35-member IAEA Board on August 1 last year.

With this, India can go ahead with its nuclear commerce with the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Also, those countries which have signed civil nuclear agreements with India can now proceed with their ratification process in their respective countries, Department of Atomic Energy sources said.

The agreement with the IAEA was a pre-condition for the implementation of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and allows the 45-member NSG to supply material and technology for India’s ambitious nuclear power programme.

According to Chairman and Managing Director of Nuclear Power Corporation, S K Jain, this is one step forward towards the agreed framework in implementing the deal on international nuclear commerce.

Jain said, “We are happy that we have achieved another milestone in the journey of nuclear power commerce.”

The ISSA will allow operationalisation of inter-governmental agreements (with Russia, US and France). Now it has to get a cabinet nod and then go for ratification. Atomic Energy Commission member M R Srinivasan said this was a “crucial step” as per the plan of action under the civil nuclear cooperation with the US.

Importing of natural uranium immediately would be possible for fuel-starved nuclear indigenous reactors once it is ratified, he said. India has already signed a contract with the French power company AREVA for importing 300 tonnes of yellow cake (natural uranium).

By Andrew Ward, Edward Luce and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
The Financial Times

Published: January 18 2009 22:13 | Last updated: January 19 2009 00:11

North Korea might have continued to engage in uranium enrichment activities in spite of its pledge to give up all nuclear weapons prog­rammes, according to the outgoing US national security adviser.

Stephen Hadley urged tough questions over highly enriched uranium (HEU), while encouraging Barack Obama, the president-elect, to keep faith with the six-party framework to deal with North Korea.

“We strongly believe that there is an undetermined amount of highly enriched uranium in North Korea,” Mr Hadley told the Financial Times. “It got there either because it was manufactured there or because it was imported – we don’t know which. But either way, it’s got to be explained.”

North Korea has had a plutonium-based nuclear programme for more than two decades and tested its first nuclear device in 2006, but the US believes the secretive country has also tried to develop a second, uranium-based programme.

Without giving details, Mr Hadley said there was evidence that Pyongyang had continued to experiment with HEU since the US first confronted Kim Jong-il’s regime over the issue in 2002. “That, of course, gives us real concern,” he said.

He predicted that Pyongyang would seek fresh bilateral talks with the new administration but argued that the six-party process still offered the best chance of a lasting settlement. The administration of George W. Bush launched the six-party talks – involving the US, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia – in 2003 to apply multilateral pressure on Pyongyang.

North Korea agreed in 2005 to denuclearise in return for economic and political incentives but progress towards concluding the deal has been slow.

Mr Hadley’s remarks came days after Mr Bush, the outgoing president, voiced renewed concern over North Korea’s suspected HEU programme at his farewell press conference.

However, the possible existence of an HEU programme in North Korea remains a source of intense debate in intelligence circles. Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, on Friday said the US ­intelligence community‘s consensus view – that it believes with “moderate” confidence that North Korea had an active HEU programme – had not changed.

Some critics of Mr Bush have suggested that the White House is highlighting fears over HEU before leaving office to justify its decision to confront North Korea in 2002 – a move that led to the collapse of a Clinton-era agreement that had frozen Pyongyang’s more advanced plutonium programme.

Over the past year, the US has downplayed concerns about HEU as it focused on getting Pyongyang to disclose and verify its plutonium programme. In recent weeks, however, government scientists have determined that particles found on documents and aluminium tubes received from North Korea as part of the verification process contained HEU.

Some sceptics have suggested that the WhiteHouse is highlighting concerns over HEU before leaving office to justify its decision to confront North Koreain 2002 – a move that led to the collapse of a Clinton-era agreement that had frozen Pyongyang’s more advanced plutonium programme.

Over the past year, the US has downplayed concerns about HEU as it focused on getting Pyongyang to disclose and verify its plutonium programme. In recent weeks, however, government scientists have determined that particles found on documents and aluminium tubes received from North Korea as part of the verification process contained HEU.

Some analysts have speculated that the HEU came from a centrifuge that Pakistan provided North Korea in the 1990s. Intelligence analysts have dated the HEU to three and a half years, prompting the Defence Intelligence Agency to argue that it must have been produced in North Korea because there has been no known cooperation between Pakistan and North Korea since 2002.

A senior official stressed that the time frame was not a “smoking gun” because the analysis had only shown that the particles were exposed to the atmosphere in North Korea in 2005. He said the uranium could have been enriched years earlier outside North Korea.

Addressing other issues, Mr Hadley said the US stood by Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistani president, until his resignation because Mr Bush feared the country could follow a similar path to Iran if the US abandoned its ally.

“The president had in mind the Shah of Iran . . .  and said, ‘I’m not going to do that’,” Mr Hadley said, referring to the US-backed leader whose overthrow in 1979 helped hand power to Islamic extremists in Tehran.

Mr Hadley added the election of a black president with a multicultural background had increased faith in US democracy in the Middle East, even claiming it would advance Mr Bush’s “freedom agenda” in the region.

“It was a convincing display that . . . contrary to the view of many, our democracy and electoral process was not a sham.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

<---End of Quote--->

Related Article:
Bush raises fresh concerns about N Korea

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
The Financial Times

Published: January 13 2009 00:38 | Last updated: January 13 2009 00:38

President George W. Bush on Monday raised fresh concerns about North Korea saying the Stalinist state may have a secret programme to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons.

In his final press conference, Mr Bush said North Korea remained a “problem” even though he removed Pyongyang from the US terrorism list last year.

“There is a debate in the [intelligence] community about how big a problem they are. But one of my concerns is that there might be a highly enriched uranium program.”

In 2002, the Bush administration accused North Korea of having a programme to enrich uranium. The charge led to the breakdown in nuclear talks. North Korea later withdrew from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and tested a plutonium-based nuclear weapon in 2006.

North Korea later returned to the negotiating table as part of the six-party talks that include China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. But the process ran aground late last year after Pyongyang refused to agree on a required mechanism to verify the contents of an earlier nuclear declaration.

Last summer, Pyongyang provided Washington with documents to back up claims on plutonium processing made in the nuclear declaration. But the documents themselves showed traces of enriched uranium, renewing suspicions that North Korea had a uranium enrichment programme.

One senior US official said intelligence agencies had found particles of highly enriched uranium on the documents and on aluminium tubes which North Korea was believed to have bought for an uranium programme. He said the intelligence community was split over whether the new evidence suggested that Pyongyang had imported the uranium from Pakistan or enriched it domestically.

The US intelligence community has said it had “high confidence” that North Korea had previously pursued a uranium programme, but only “moderate confidence” that the programme was ongoing.

The official said the overall “moderate” confidence assessment remained the same. But he said some parts of the intelligence community, including the Defense Intelligence Agency, were now more confident that North Korea’s programme was ongoing.

Another senior US official who is skeptical of the latest claims said there was no evidence to heighten fears about an ongoing programme.

The first official said the US was making the concerns public now to underscore the need for a strong verification mechanism.

“The North Korean government must honour the commitments it made to allow for strong verification measures to be in place, to ensure that they don’t develop a highly enriched uranium program,” said Mr Bush.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009