Nonproliferation News - October 20, 2009

FISSILE MATERIAL
Lowering the alert levels in U.S. and Russia
WP by Walter Pincus

U.S. Seeks to Keep Watching Russia’s Weapons
NYT by Thom Shanker and Peter Baker

Why a Month Matters
Foreign Policy by Nima Gerami and James M. Acton

Nuclear talks delayed as Iran objects to France
AFP by Simon Morgan

EAST ASIA
1. Any North Korea meeting must lead to six-way talk: U.S.
Reuters
The United States wants any bilateral contacts with North Korea to result in the resumption of stalled six-country nuclear negotiations, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia said on Monday.

2. NKorea diplomat in China ahead of rare trip to US
AP by Nyung-Jin Kim
A senior North Korean diplomat stopped in Beijing Tuesday en route to the United States for a rare visit aimed at laying the groundwork for direct negotiations with Washington, news reports said.

3. Seoul won't mend ties with nuclear-armed North
UPI by Lee Jong-Heon
South Korea's diplomatic chief on Monday ruled out an inter-Korean summit and economic aid for North Korea before it takes “substantial” measures to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.

4. Debate over U.S. nuclear weapons in Japan
UPI by Mitsuo Takai
Japan's new government, led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, has expressed its intention to expose any secret agreement that might have allowed the United States' nuclear weapons to sneak into Japanese territory. Successive governments led by the Liberal Democrats, now in opposition, have denied such a secret deal.

MIDDLE EAST
5. Iran Threatens to Back Out of Fuel Deal
NYT by David E. Sanger
Iran opened two days of nuclear talks with the United States, Russia and France on Monday with veiled public threats that it could back away from an agreement to ship more than three-quarters of its stockpile of nuclear fuel out of the country, unless the West acceded to Iranian demands to provide it with new fuel.

6. Diplomats: 1st day of Iran nuke talks inconclusive
AP by George Jahn
A first day of talks to get Iran to send most of its enriched uranium abroad — and thus delay its potential to make a nuclear weapon — ended inconclusively Monday, with Tehran remaining uncommitted, diplomats told The Associated Press.

7. Nuclear talks delayed as Iran objects to France
AFP by Simon Morgan
Nuclear talks between Iran and world powers were held up Tuesday after Iran said it did not want France to be part of any deal on uranium enrichment.

8. Iran says nuclear technology program to go ahead
Reuters
Iran will never abandon its "legal and obvious" right to nuclear technology, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Tuesday, adding that Tehran had no plan to halt its disputed uranium enrichment work.

SOUTH ASIA

RUSSIA/FSU
9. U.S. Seeks to Keep Watching Russia’s Weapons
NYT by Thom Shanker and Peter Baker
With a key arms control treaty set to expire soon, the Obama administration is searching for ways to keep inspectors in Russia or else it risks losing American eyes on the world’s second most formidable nuclear weapons arsenal for the first time in decades.

EUROPE
10. Biden to soothe Polish, Czechs on missile defense
Reuters by Jeff Mason
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden heads to central and eastern Europe on Tuesday to soothe concerns from Poland and the Czech Republic about Washington's revamped plans for a missile defense system there.

11. U.S. says not eyeing non-NATO states for shield
Reuters by Margarita Antidze
The United States does not envisage placing any elements of a revised missile defense system within non-NATO members and is not in consultations with any such states, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
12. 2ND LD: Nonproliferation panel gives up nuke cut target to below 1,000 by 2025+
Kyodo by AP
An international nuclear nonproliferation panel currently meeting in Hiroshima gave up Monday on making recommendations to reduce the number of nuclear warheads in the world from more than 20,000 at present to less than 1,000 by 2025, sources close to the panel said.

MISCELLANEOUS
13. Lowering the alert levels in U.S. and Russia
WP by Walter Pincus
The high alert levels for U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces are more political statements carried over from the Cold War than military necessities for the 21st century, according to a multinational study released last week.

OPINION
14. Why a Month Matters
Foreign Policy by Nima Gerami and James M. Acton
The fuel-supply agreement for the Tehran research reactor has dominated expert discussion about Iran's nuclear program has obscured another potentially important but less positive development -- Iran's delay in permitting inspectors to visit its previously undeclared enrichment facility near Qom.

15. Nuclear swap
WP
FOR NOW, at least, nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West have narrowed to an issue that was not even on the agenda a month ago: Iran's possible export of most of its existing stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia and France, which would turn it into fuel for an Iranian research reactor. This is both a bad and a good development.