Nonproliferation News - November 6, 2009

FISSILE MATERIAL
Iran tested advanced nuclear warhead design – secret report
Guardian by Julian Borger

Iran holding up nuclear deal with demand for reactor fuel, diplomat says
WP by Glenn Kessler

Bunkers or Breakthrough?
NYT by Roger Cohen

Passing the buck on North Korea 
Asia Times by Donald Kirk

EAST ASIA
1. Group of U.S. experts to visit N. Korea this month: sources 
Yonhap by Tony Chang
A group of U.S experts on Korean affairs plan to visit North Korea later this month to meet with key officials involved in Pyongyang's nuclear program, informed sources said Thursday.

2. Former U.S. official has doubts on nuke deal
JoongAng Daily by Yoo Jee-ho
Victor Cha, a former deputy U.S. nuclear negotiator and an expert on Korean affairs, says he is pessimistic about achieving denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. He also believes North Korea hasn’t deviated much from its past pattern of following up provocations with “smile diplomacy” and that the United States and others have learned their lessons.

3. Japan Says it "Cannot Tolerate" North Korea's Nuclear Operations
GSN
A senior Japanese official said yesterday that the government was greatly disappointed by North Korea's announcement that it had finished reprocessing 8,000 nuclear fuel rods into weapon-grade plutonium, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, Nov. 4).

MIDDLE EAST
4. Iran tested advanced nuclear warhead design – secret report
Guardian by Julian Borger
The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.

5. U.N. head: Timing key to Iran nuclear deal
CNN
The outgoing head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said a question of timing is the top issue delaying a nuclear deal between Iran and international powers.

6. Iran holding up nuclear deal with demand for reactor fuel, diplomat says
WP by Glenn Kessler
Iran is demanding full delivery of reactor fuel before it gives up its stash of low-enriched uranium and has balked at further efforts to hold international talks on its nuclear program, according to a senior European diplomat.

7. Clinton urges Iran to accept nuclear offer as it is
AFP
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday urged Iran to accept unchanged a UN-drafted deal with global powers on its nuclear program.

8. Iran cleric says conditions unacceptable on nuclear fuel
Reuters by Parisa Hafezi
The U.N. nuclear watchdog is legally obliged to provide Iran with nuclear fuel for its research reactor without setting any conditions, a hardline Iranian cleric told worshippers on Friday.

9. Iran to give UN watchdog more nuclear details
AFP by Siavosh Ghazi
Iran said on Friday it is preparing to give more details on its response to international proposals for supplying nuclear fuel and expects more negotiations, even as Washington warned the time for talking is over.

SOUTH ASIA
10. US, EU ask India, others to embrace NPT, CTBT
The Pioneer by S. Rajagopalan
In a renewed bid to pressure India and other non-signatories, a summit of the United States and the European Union has asked all these nations to accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) “as non-nuclear weapon States” to achieve universality.

RUSSIA/FSU
11. Russia welcomes "constructive" U.S. proposals on new START treaty
Xinhua
The U.S. has made "constructive" proposals to Russia on a nuclear arsenal cut deal, raising hopes of reaching a new accord to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) that expires Dec. 5, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

12. Moscow hopes to conclude U.S.-Russia arms talks Nov. 9
RIA Novosti
Moscow hopes November 9 will see the start of the concluding round of U.S.-Russian arms reduction talks, official Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on Friday.

13. Russia Receives New START Offer From U.S.
GSN
The United States presented Russia with an offer last week that could dramatically improve the likelihood of agreement on a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ahead of the 1991 pact's expiration on Dec. 5, Moscow indicated today (see GSN, Nov. 3).

14. Russian FM optimistic on arms control treaty deal
AP
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry has voiced hope that Moscow and Washington will be able to negotiate a successor to a Cold War-era arms control treaty that expires next month.

EUROPE
15. Lavrov says surprised Poland seeking U.S. protection from Russia
RIA Novosti
Moscow is surprised at media reports that Poland is seeking to host U.S. troops to protect it from Russia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

MISCELLANEOUS

OPINION
16. Bunkers or Breakthrough?
NYT by Roger Cohen
In his last month as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei finds himself at the explosive crux of the world’s nuclear politics, ferrying messages between the Obama administration and Tehran. “They are talking through me,” he says.

17. Tehran gains time
WP
IT'S BEEN five weeks since the Obama administration announced that Iran had agreed to ship most of its enriched uranium out of the country in exchange for fuel rods for a research reactor -- a deal that promised to delay Tehran's nuclear program by a year or so. But there have been no shipments; instead, Iran rejected the technical terms proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. It is trying to change the deal in a way that would remove the slight benefit it offered to the West. And it is continuing its refusal even to discuss the central demand of the U.N. Security Council, which is that it suspend uranium enrichment.

18. The deal that was not
Haaretz by Emanuele Ottolenghi
The uranium transfer agreement reached in Vienna last month between Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), France, Russia and the United States is a bad deal. Its details are still not public, and Iran refuses to endorse it. Still, its general terms are known: Iran would ship a significant amount of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) stockpile to Russia for further enrichment. That would then be processed into fuel rods (in France) and returned to Iran for use in its Tehran research reactor, under IAEA safeguards. These terms leave some critical matters essentially unresolved.

19. Passing the buck on North Korea 
Asia Times by Donald Kirk
From his seat of power in Pyongyang, Kim Jong-il waves a lordly hand. Here comes former United States president Bill Clinton with his retinue, begging for the favor of an audience. And there's Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, beseeching the Dear Leader for the dispensation of deals and understandings.

20. What Obama Should Say to North Korea
WSJ by Melanie Kirkpatrick
Now that the Obama administration is talking directly to the rulers of North Korea, it would be fitting if it also had a message for the people these leaders oppress. Instead, as is the case with human-rights abusers in most of the world's benighted spots—think Tibet, Burma, Vietnam, Iran, Sudan—the administration remains largely silent.