Nuclear Policy News – July 5, 2018

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Top News

U.S. softens North Korea approach as Pompeo prepares for more nuclear talks
Reuters

Kono tells IAEA Japan is ready to help with inspecting North Korea’s nuclear facilities
The Japan Times

Europe, China, Russia to meet Iran on Friday in Vienna
Reuters

Meeting between IAEA Director General and Iran’s President
IAEA

EAST ASIA

U.S. softens North Korea approach as Pompeo prepares for more nuclear talks
Reuters7/4/18
The United States appears to have shelved an “all or nothing” approach to North Korean denuclearization as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to head back to North Korea this week hoping to agree a roadmap for its nuclear disarmament.

Kono tells IAEA Japan is ready to help with inspecting North Korea’s nuclear facilities
The Japan Times7/5/18
Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Thursday that Japan will support the International Atomic Energy Agency if it conducts inspections of North Korea’s nuclear facilities.

Peace on the Korean Peninsula Hinges on Kim Jong Un’s Interest in Denuclearization
TIME7/5/18
Despite no signs of North Korea abandoning its nuclear weapons any time soon, South Korea is literally bouncing ahead this week with peace efforts with its rival, which was threatening war just months ago.

Mike Pompeo under pressure to secure nuclear progress in North Korea visit
The Guardian7/5/18
Weeks after Donald Trump declared the world a safer place following his historic summit with Kim Jong-un, Mike Pompeo is due to arrive in Pyongyang on Friday amid growing doubts over the regime’s willingness to abandon its nuclear weapons.

Pompeo, off to North Korea again, is under the gun to produce results
CNN7/4/18
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heads to North Korea on Thursday under pressure to produce tangible signs of progress as US intelligence reports cast doubt on Kim Jong Un’s intention to dismantle his nuclear and missile programs.

MIDDLE EAST

Europe, China, Russia to meet Iran on Friday in Vienna
Reuters7/4/18
Foreign ministers from China, France, Germany, Britain and Russia will meet with Iranian officials on Friday in Vienna to discuss how to keep a 2015 nuclear accord alive after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the pact in May.

Meeting between IAEA Director General and Iran’s President
IAEA7/4/18
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Vienna on 4 July, as part of the regular high level dialogue between the IAEA and Iran.

RUSSIA/FSU/EUROPE

The most important part of the Trump-Putin summit no one is talking about
Vox7/5/18
President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on July 16 will likely feature discussions about election meddling, the war with Syria, and the North Korean threat. But the most important outcome of the meeting may be something almost no one is talking about: The extension of the New Start nuclear treaty between the United States and Russia.

OPINION AND ANALYSIS

Another Death Knell for the Iran Nuclear Deal
TIMETom Keatinge
7/4/18
The Financial Action Task Force—an international group that monitors money laundering worldwide—avoided a decision to return Iran to its blacklist of countries not doing enough to combat money laundering. Iran’s continued litany of financial crime failings further undermines the future of the country’s nuclear deal with Western governments.

Iran’s nuclear program and West’s blatant double standards
Tehran TimesSyed Zafar Mehdi
7/5/18
A few weeks ago, new nuclear enrichment facility was inaugurated at Natanz, which will be producing centrifuges, while operating within the limits of the nuclear deal. The facility’s construction had begun even before the 2015 nuclear deal was inked, Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi informed, expressing hope that the first old-generation centrifuges will roll out in a month’s time.

How Trump Went From ‘Fire and Fury’ to Dismissing North Korean Nuclear Advances
The New York TimesDavid E. Sanger
7/4/18
When the North Koreans were shooting off missile tests and detonating new, more powerful atomic bombs last year, President Trump responded with threats of “fire and fury” and ordered the military to come up with new, if highly risky, pre-emptive strike options.

Trump’s summit with Kim could foretell catastrophe with Putin
The Washington PostGeorge F. Will
7/4/18
As the president prepares, if this time he does prepare, for his second summit, note all that went wrong at the first. If he does as badly in his July 16 meeting with Vladimir Putin in Finland as he did with Kim Jong Un in Singapore, the consequences could be catastrophic.

Donald Trump is typically bullish about North Korea nuclear talks – but the hard work begins this week
IndependentChris Stevenson
7/4/18
However confident Mr Trump is about nuclear talks with Pyongyang, the hard work is just beginning

Kazianis on Fox and Friends: Pompeo Should Set a Deadline for North Korea
The National InterestHarry J. Kazianis
7/5/18
Harry J. Kazianis, Executive Editor of the National Interest and Director of Defense Studies at the Center for the National Interest, was interviewed on on Fox and Friends this morning to discuss Secertary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to North Korea.

How Donald Trump uses fear and reassurance to build allegiance
CNNChris Cillizza
7/3/18
On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump woke up and tapped out this tweet: “Many good conversations with North Korea-it is going well! In the meantime, no Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months. All of Asia is thrilled. Only the Opposition Party, which includes the Fake News, is complaining. If not for me, we would now be at War with North Korea!”

Why the World Should Never Accept a Nuclear North Korea
The National InterestKevin R. James
7/3/18
Trump needs to present North Korea with a final opportunity to comply with the Singapore summit agreement by taking concrete steps to begin the CVID process.

India Can Now Attack Any Target (or City) in China with a Nuclear Weapon
The National InterestZachary Keck
7/3/18
Many also believe that India will eventually equip the missile with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs). Those allow a single missile to launch warheads at different targets.

SPECIAL INTEREST

Waste makes haste: How a campaign to speed up nuclear waste shipments shut down the WIPP long-term repository
Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsVincent Ialenti
6/28/18
What happened, in the years leading up to Valentine’s Day 2014, that made a canister of nuclear waste burst open and spew out fire underground at a US facility for the long-term disposal of radioactive military waste? According to one widely publicized scenario, a simple run-of-the-mill typo led to organic kitty litter mistakenly being used to soak up liquid in the drum instead of another kind of absorbent material.

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