Nuear Policy News - February 9, 2010

FISSILE MATERIAL

China's role positive in efforts to resume N. Korea nuclear talks: Seoul official

Yonhap News by Lee Chi-dong

Iran Begins Further Uranium Processing
NYT by Alan Cowell and Thom Shanker

West's Iran concern is valid-Russia security chief
Reuters

Russia Enacts New Military Doctrine
GSN

Iran’s Two-Edged Bomb
NYT Op-ed by Adam B. Lowther

EAST ASIA
Korea should be nuclear-free, Kim tells China envoy
Channel News Asia by AFP
BEIJING: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il restated Pyongyang's goal of ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons when he met a visiting senior Chinese envoy, Chinese state media reported Tuesday.

China's role positive in efforts to resume N. Korea nuclear talks: Seoul official
Yonhap News by Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- A flurry of diplomatic activity on North Korea bodes well for the fate of the troubled six-way talks on the communist state's nuclear program, a senior South Korean government official said Tuesday.

Koreas fail to agree on resuming border tours, North stokes tension
Yonhap News
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Yonhap) -- Officials from North and South Korea ended talks Monday without an agreement on steps to restart stalled cross-border tours, as Pyongyang's top security organs warned of an attack on Seoul with what they called secret weapons.

MIDDLE EAST
Iran Begins Further Uranium Processing
NYT by Alan Cowell and Thom Shanker
PARIS — Brushing aside international calls for stricter sanctions against it, Iran said Tuesday it had begun enriching uranium for use in a medical reactor to a higher level of purity, raising the stakes again in its dispute with the United States and other countries over its nuclear program.
 
Obama says world moving quickly on Iran sanctions
Reuters by Ross Colvin and Reza Derakhshi
WASHINGTON/TEHRAN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the international community was moving "fairly quickly" towards imposing broader sanctions on Iran, as the Islamic Republic defiantly expanded its nuclear program.

IAEA fears Iran move hurts chances for atomic deal
Reuters
VIENNA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog fears Iran's plan to start producing higher-enriched uranium will damage chances to save a proposed atomic fuel supply deal between Tehran and world powers, its spokeswoman said on Monday.

Iran official: Window for nuke deal open
CNN by Tom Evans
(CNN) -- Iran's envoy to the International International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the window for nuclear negotiations is still open -- even as tensions rise over Iran's decision to defy the world on uranium enrichment.

West's Iran concern is valid-Russia security chief
Reuters
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Western concerns about Iran's nuclear intentions are well-founded, Russia's national security chief said on Tuesday, and suggested that more than diplomacy might be needed to end Tehran's defiance.

SOUTH ASIA
 
RUSSIA/FSU/EUROPE
U.S. Nukes Should Remain on German Soil, Report Says
GSN
A former NATO chief and other analysts today blasted the call by the ruling coalition government in Germany to have U.S. nuclear weapons removed from the country the New York Times reported (see GSN, Nov. 9, 2009).

Russia Enacts New Military Doctrine
GSN
The new, 10-year Russian military doctrine inked last week by President Dmitry Medvedev does not specifically authorize the pre-emptive use of nuclear force, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 18, 2009).

NATO remains 'serious' threat to Russia: official
AFP
MOSCOW — NATO remains a serious threat to Russia's security, the secretary of the country's national security council said on Tuesday.

US denies missile defenses aimed at Russia
AFP
WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday denied Moscow's latest charge that US missile defense plans in Europe are aimed at Russia, insisting they are directed at Iran.

MULTILATERAL ARMS CONTROL AND NONPROLIFERATION
 
U.S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS STRATEGY AND POLICY
What Does $36B in Nuclear Loan Guarantees Buy Democrats?
NYT by Katherine Ling
The Obama administration extended a helping hand to the nuclear industry last week by proposing to expand nuclear power loan guarantee authority by $36 billion, putting into action its long-stated support for the energy source.

OPINIONS
Iran’s Two-Edged Bomb
NYT Op-ed by Adam B. Lowther
With Iran having notified the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency that it is now enriching its stockpile of uranium to a higher level, we should admit that Washington’s approach to countering the Islamic Republic is leading nowhere. What’s needed, however, may be less of a change of plan than a change in how we view the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Interview with Iran Rep. to IAEA Soltanieh
PressTV
. . . The following is Press TV's exclusive interview with Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, on February 8.

Analysis: Iranian plan will put nation a step closer to having material for bomb
WP by Glenn Kessler
Iran's formal notification Monday to a United Nations nuclear watchdog that it will begin producing higher-grade enriched uranium marks a new and potentially dangerous turn in Tehran's confrontation with the West over its nuclear ambitions.