Nonproliferation News - November 4, 2009

FISSILE MATERIAL
U.S. pressed N. Korea to allow IAEA inspectors back
Breitbart by Kyodo News

Iran Raises Uranium Output as Photos Show Need for Wider Checks
Bloomberg by Jonathan Tirone

Iran's Khamenei rejects U.S. outreach
WP by Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin

Why We Don't Need to Resume Nuclear Testing
Carnegie by Daryl G. Kimball

EAST ASIA
1. U.S. about to set timing for talks with N. Korea: Seoul envoy 
Yonhap by Lee Chi-dong
The United States is expected to decide "soon" whether and when to hold bilateral dialogue with North Korea, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy said Wednesday.

2. U.S. pressed N. Korea to allow IAEA inspectors back
Breitbart by Kyodo News
The United States recently urged North Korea to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into its nuclear facilities, a source close to the six-party nuclear disarmament talks said Tuesday.

3. US: North Korea Plutonium Production Violates UN Resolutions 
VOA News by Meredith Buel
The United States says North Korea's plutonium production is contrary to its nuclear disarmament commitments and violates resolutions passed by the U.N. Security Council.

4. North Korea can now build one more nuclear bomb
CSM by Peter Grier
Has North Korea just become a bigger nuclear threat? Strictly speaking, that might be the case. On Tuesday, North Korea's official news agency reported that the country had finished reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods. Those rods likely provided enough plutonium for at least one nuclear weapon.

5. North Korea warns US: negotiate or else
CSM by Donald Kirk
North Korea issued a demand Monday for dialogue with the United States with a message that carried an implicit threat: talk or else.

6. SCENARIOS-Next steps in North Korea nuclear crisis
Reuters by Jon Herskovitz
North Korea has increased pressure on regional powers trying to persuade it to abandon nuclear arms in exchange for massive aid by saying on Tuesday it had produced more plutonium to make atomic weapons.

MIDDLE EAST
7. Iran Raises Uranium Output as Photos Show Need for Wider Checks
Bloomberg by Jonathan Tirone
Satellite photos indicate that Iran has increased production at a uranium mine, underscoring the need for wider UN inspections to determine whether the country is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

8. Exiled group says Iranian nuclear site needs check
AP by Elaine Ganley
An exiled Iranian opposition group called on the U.N. nuclear agency Tuesday to waste no time in examining a hidden site near Tehran that it claims is used to help build nuclear detonators.

9. Iran's Khamenei rejects U.S. outreach
WP by Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin
Iran's supreme leader, spurning what he described as several personal overtures from President Obama, warned Tuesday that negotiating with the United States would be "naive and perverted" and that Iranian politicians should not be "deceived" into starting such talks.

10. Obama, EU leaders urge Iran to meet obligations
AFP
US President Barack Obama and European Union leaders issued a joint call Tuesday on Iran to meet its international obligations, as pressure mounted on Tehran to accept a nuclear fuel deal.

11. Yadlin: Qom facility has 'no possible civilian use'
Jerusalem Post by Rebecca Anna Stoil
The recently-revealed Iranian nuclear facility in the Shi'ite holy city of Qom has "no possible civilian use," Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said Tuesday, directly contradicting statements made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in September.

12. Gasoline Embargo on Iran Could Backfire, Experts Say
GSN by David Gauvey Herbert
With Iran still refusing to play ball with the West over its nuclear program, lawmakers are turning up the heat by targeting oil companies that import gasoline to Iran. But critics of new House and Senate legislation cite a laundry list of reasons why targeting gas imports won't work -- and why it could even strengthen Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government (see GSN, Oct. 30).

SOUTH ASIA
13. India casts doubts on Pak's ability to secure its nuke assets
Indian Express
Expressing concern over the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, India on Wednesday said it didn't know for "how long and how far" Islamabad would be able to safeguard its strategic assets.

14. Nukes in safe hands: PM
Pakistan Observer
Prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani expressing his satisfaction over the results of the South Waziristan operation has said that nuclear weapons are completely safe and there is no chance of them falling into the hands of the extremists.

RUSSIA/FSU
15. START Successor Should Cover Non-Nuclear Missiles, Russia Says
GSN
A successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty might address U.S. plans to deploy long-range, conventionally armed missiles, Russia suggested yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 2).

EUROPE
16. Merkel delivers Iran warning
Financial Times by Bertrand Benoit, Anna Fifield,and James Blitz
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, yesterday delivered a stern warning to Iran's hard-line leader amid signs that the west's patience with Tehran's prevarication on its nuclear programme was running out.

17. France wades into bog of North Korean diplomacy
AP by Angela Charlton
Nicolas Sarkozy is once again wading into international diplomacy. After trying a hand at Mideast peace, raising France's profile on Iran and reaching out to Cuba, he's homing in on another problem long seen as Washington's to solve: North Korea.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
18. IAEA Faces Continuing Funding Troubles, ElBaradei Says
GSN
Despite becoming a "major player" on nuclear security issues, the International Atomic Energy Agency continues to face funding difficulties that threaten the organization's ability to carry out its mandate, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday in his final address to the U.N. General Assembly (see GSN, Oct. 22).

MISCELLANEOUS
19. Ban on importing foreign nuclear waste advances
Tennessean by Bill Theobald
Legislation to ban the importation of foreign radioactive waste took a small step forward Tuesday when a House subcommittee signed off on the bill.

OPINION
20. Why We Don't Need to Resume Nuclear Testing: A Reply to Senator Jon Kyl's "Why We Need to Test Nuclear Weapons"
Carnegie by Daryl G. Kimball
Today, there is no technical or military reason to resume U.S. nuclear weapons testing, and it is in the national security interest to help prevent nuclear weapons testing by others. A growing list of bipartisan leaders agree that by ratifying the CTBT, the U.S. stands to gain an important constraint on the ability of other states to build new and more deadly nuclear weapons that could pose a threat to American security.

21. On Iran and North Korea, Obama's nuclear-free vision is at stake
CSM
One year after his election, Barack Obama appears no closer to his big hope for a legacy as US president: A determined global effort for a world with zero atomic weapons.

22. The US must cajole Iran into a nuclear deal
Financial Times by Robert Litwak
The Obama administration has called the negotiations to curb Iran’s nuclear capabilities a critical test of the Tehran regime’s intentions. The dilemma is that through its mastery of uranium enrichment, Iran has achieved a breakout option: centrifuges ostensibly intended to produce low-enriched uranium for civil use can be kept spinning to yield high-enriched uranium for bomb-making. Negotiations can narrow, but not eliminate that inherent ambiguity, since any country that crosses that key technological threshold is a “virtual” nuclear-weapons state, according to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

23. The President Snubs Iran's Democrats
WSJ by Akbar Atri and Miriam Memarsadeghi
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the taking of American hostages by radical Islamists during Iran's 1979 Revolution. The regime's anti-Americanism is being boldly confronted. Yet courageous and dignified overtures to the U.S. by Green Movement activists have been snubbed by the Obama administration

24. Uniting All of the Allies Some of the Time
NYT by James P. Rubin
Having fulfilled its promise to restore respect and support from America’s allies, the Obama administration should now be reaping the benefits of Western unity as it faces international crises like Afghanistan and Iran. But the unfortunate truth is that where Western unity is sufficient, it is not real. And where it is real, it is not sufficient.