Nonproliferation News - November 10, 2009

FISSILE MATERIAL
Obama will send top diplomat to North Korea for direct talks
WP by Scott Wilson

Iran's Moves Reveal Leadership Rift
WSJ by Gerald F. Seib

Just How 'Secret' is Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program?
Foreign Policy by Christian Caryl

JASON Panel Offers Secret Nuclear Warhead Upkeep Recommendations
GSN by Elaine M. Grossman

EAST ASIA
1. Obama will send top diplomat to North Korea for direct talks
WP by Scott Wilson
President Obama has agreed to send a senior U.S. diplomat to North Korea for the first direct talks with the government there in more than a year, hoping the mission will lead to the renewal of multi-nation negotiations designed to end its nuclear program.

2. Two Koreas in brief naval clash, vessels hit
Reuters by Jon Herskovitz and Kim Yeon-hee
Navies from the rival Koreas exchanged gunfire for the first time in seven years on Tuesday, damaging vessels on both sides and raising tension just days before President Barack Obama travels to Asia.

MIDDLE EAST
3. Iran's Moves Reveal Leadership Rift
WSJ by Gerald F. Seib
One month after the U.S. launched a great diplomatic experiment by talking directly with Iran, the pressure of the effort is opening up some stress fractures.

4. Obama: hard for Iran to make quick decisions
Reuters by Caren Bohan and Ross Colvin
An unsettled political situation in Iran may be complicating efforts to seal a nuclear fuel deal between Tehran and major world powers, President Barack Obama said on Monday.

5. Iran, Turkey Discuss Option for Turkish Uranium Role
Bloomberg by Ben Holand
Turkish and Iranian officials held talks on a proposal from the chief of the United Nations nuclear agency for Iran’s enriched uranium to be sent to Turkey for processing into reactor fuel, an alternative to a plan for Russia to do the work.

6. U.S. says can give Iran time to okay nuclear deal
Reuters by Mark Heinrich
The United States is willing to give Iran time to decide whether to accept a U.N.-brokered deal meant to allay suspicions it is after atomic bombs but which has drawn Iranian objections, a U.S. diplomat said Monday.

7. Clinton Urges Iran to Accept U.N. Nuclear Offer
NYT by Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday urged Iran to accept a U.N.-drafted proposal to have uranium for a medical reactor enriched abroad.

8. Iran can’t be trusted on the nuclear issue: Doha Debates
The Peninsula by Mohammed Iqbal
A lively session of the Doha Debates yesterday narrowly defeated a motion that said Iran could be trusted in its claims regarding the nuclear issue.

SOUTH ASIA
9. Pakistan 'doesn't need help' to guard nukes: general
AFP
Pakistan's military chief on Monday said that his country did not need any foreign help in guarding its nuclear facilities because they were already well protected.

10. FACTBOX - Pakistan's nuclear weapons
Reuters
Pakistan is capable of ensuring the security of its nuclear arsenal and a report it is negotiating "understandings" for U.S. units to augment the weapons' safety was "absurd", a top Pakistani commander said.

RUSSIA/FSU
11. Hopes Rise for New U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control Deal
GSN
Officials in Washington have grown increasingly optimistic that Russia and the United States will agree on a deal to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty before the 1991 pact expires next month, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 6).

EUROPE

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

MISCELLANEOUS
12. JASON Panel Offers Secret Nuclear Warhead Upkeep Recommendations
GSN by Elaine M. Grossman
A prominent scientific panel last month delivered to the U.S. Energy Department a set of secret recommendations on the future maintenance and modernization of the nuclear arsenal, a document some experts say could significantly influence policy debates on the matter (see GSN, Sept. 24).

OPINION
13. Iran's top-down unity
Guardian by Meir Javedanfar
Iran's refusal to accept the recent nuclear proposal put forward in Vienna has left many people baffled, especially since it was one of the most generous deals offered to date by the west.

14. Just How 'Secret' is Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program?
Foreign Policy by Christian Caryl
The New York Times a few weeks ago ran a story about Iran's nuclear program that trumpeted an amazing scoop. Documents leaked from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed shocking new details about a covert Iranian effort to develop nuclear weapons -- one that goes "well beyond the public positions taken by several governments, including the United States."