Nuclear Policy News – January 30, 2019

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TOP NEWS

On North Korea and Iran, Intelligence Chiefs Contradict Trump
New York Times

Dems Reintroduce Bill To Prevent Nuclear First Strike Without Congressional Approval
The Hill

Russia Secretly Offered North Korea A Nuclear Power Plant, Officials Say
The Washington Post

East Asia

North Korea Nuclear: US Intelligence Report Says Regime to Keep Weapons
BBC1/30/2019
North Korea is unlikely to fully give up its nuclear weapons, a US intelligence report says, despite the hopes of the Trump administration. The Worldwide Threat Assessment report also says Iran is not making nuclear weapons, but that cyber threats from China and Russia are a growing concern.

Russia Secretly Offered North Korea A Nuclear Power Plant, Officials Say
The Washington Post1/29/2019
Russian officials made a secret proposal to North Korea last fall aimed at resolving deadlocked negotiations with the Trump administration over the North’s nuclear weapons program, said U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.

On North Korea and Iran, Intelligence Chiefs Contradict Trump
New York Times1/29/2019
A new American intelligence assessment of global threats has concluded that North Korea is unlikely to give up its nuclear stockpiles and that Iran is not, for now, taking steps necessary to make a bomb, directly contradicting the rationale of two of President Trump’s foreign policy initiatives.

Russia/FSU/Europe

Mayors of Hiroshima, Nagasaki Urge Russia And US To Prevent INF Treaty Collapse
Tass Russian News Agency1/30/2019
Mayor of Hiroshima Kazumi Matsui and Mayor of Nagasaki Tomihisa Taue have called on Moscow and Washington to prevent the termination of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Nuclear Threat With Russia at ‘Dangerous Levels,’ Nunn Says
Bloomberg1/29/2019
The potential for cyber interference is raising the threat of a nuclear war between Russia and the U.S. to ‘dangerous levels,’ according to former Senator Sam Nunn, a longtime national-security specialist.

Middle East

Iran Nuclear Deal Is Working Despite Trump’s Withdrawal, U.S. National Intelligence Director Says
Newsweek1/29/2019
The 2015 Iran nuclear agreement has effectively curbed the Persian Gulf nation’s nuclear ambitions, according to U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.

U.S. Nuclear Policy

Dems Reintroduce Bill To Prevent Nuclear First Strike Without Congressional Approval
The Hill1/29/2019
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Tuesday announced that they will reintroduce a bill that would stop the president from being able to launch a first strike nuclear attack without first having congressional approval.

Report to Congress on Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons
US Naval Institute1/29/2019
USNI brings attention to the January 17 Congressional Research Services report on Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons. USNI suggests that the 116th Congress may wish to review some of the proposals from the report.

Special Interest

What Keeps the Spies Up at Night
New York Times – Editorial Board
1/29/2019
The Editorial Board for the NY Times writes: It’s tempting to see the report as simply a scorecard on the president’s own threat assessments. With such a wide range of risk, what matters most is that the nation grapples with the problems as they are, rather than how it imagines them to be.

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