Nuclear Policy News – April 28, 2020

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Top News

Strengthening deterrence and reducing risks
Department of State

Trump says he knows how North Korea’s Kim is doing, ‘relatively speaking’
NBC

Pompeo blasts Iran’s space program in wake of military satellite launch
Space News

United States

Strengthening deterrence and reducing risks
Department of State4/24/20
This monograph explains U.S. thinking behind the supplemental low-yield W76-2 Submarine-Launched ballistic missile.

Low-yield warhead eliminates need for nuclear buildup, State says
Exchange Monitor4/28/20
The Department of State on Friday framed deployment of a low-yield warhead aboard U.S. submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles as a means of preventing a nuclear arms race.

FACTSHEET: U.S. strategic nuclear forces under New START
Arms Control Association4/27/20
The treaty requires the sides to limit the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 1,550 and fielded delivery platforms to 700.

East Asia

Trump says he knows how North Korea’s Kim is doing, ‘relatively speaking’
NBC4/28/20
As speculations swirl about the health of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump said he was aware of how he is doing.

Amid mounting speculation, South Korea says Kim Jong Un is ‘alive and well’
CNN4/27/20
South Korea continued to pour water on mounting speculation about the health of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, telling CNN he is “alive and well.”

OPINION: Would China use nuclear weapons first in a war with the United States?
Diplomat4/27/20
Recent American statements on Chinese nuclear weapons policy merit closer scrutiny.

Middle East

Pompeo blasts Iran’s space program in wake of military satellite launch
Space News4/26/20
Following Iran’s launch of the country’s first military reconnaissance satellite, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized Iran’s space program as a cover for the development of ballistic missiles.

Russia and Europe

Russia calls U.S. claims about Iran’s launch of satellite ‘hypocrisy’
Tehran Times4/27/20
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps successfully launched Iran’s first military satellite into the orbit on Wednesday, April 22.

Multilateral Arms Control

OPINION: Proliferated nuclear ethics
LawfareGary Bass
4/28/20
Nuclear weapons terrified even George Kennan, the ice-blooded U.S. diplomat and Cold War strategist, who said in 1977, “No one is good enough, wise enough, steady enough, to have control over the volume of explosives that now rest in the hands of this country.”

IPNDV releases new analysis and videos as NPT marks 50th anniversary
IPDNV4/27/20
Today, the IPNDV is releasing new analytical and multi-media content outlining its work in developing and testing procedures and technologies for future nuclear disarmament verification.

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